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Photo Charlestcn, Newcastle. 


DANIEL BULA. 
The First Christian Convert of Vella Lavella, 
Solomon Islands. 
Frontispiece. 


THE SON 


OF A 


SAVAGE 


The Story of Daniel Bula 


BY 
R. C. ‘NICHOLSON 


Pioneer Missionary to Vella Lavella, Solomon Islands 


His life was gentle; and the elements 

So mixt in him, that Nature might stand up, 

And say to all the world,—This was a man! 
—Shakespeare. 


With Forty Illustrations 


THE ABINGDON PRESS 


NEW VORK CINCINNATI 


To my Son 
IAN 
WHOSE EARLY | 
YEARS WERE SPENT IN 
THE DAILY COMPANIONSHIP OF 


DANIEL BULA 


PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN 


PREFACE 


THE first edition of this story was published as 
a forty-eight page booklet under the title Daniel 
Bula. Its 3,000 copies were quickly sold. As 
many friends urged the publication of a second 
edition I decided to enlarge the book to its 
present size. 

Daniel Bula was my constant companion for 
fifteen years, and during the whole of that time 
his life was closely interwoven with my own. He 
was brought up in brutal barbarism until twelve 
years of age, yet became an attractive Christian 
gentleman. The great change was wrought 
under my own eyes, for mine was the honour of 
being the first white man to settle among his 
people. 

It is no part of the purpose of this little volume 
to tell my own experiences. Mention has been 
made of some of them only in so far as they were 
necessary to bring out in clearer light the life 
and character of ‘ Daniel.’ 

Stanley High, in his book, The Revolt of Youth, 


says: “In order to have peace as a ruling force in 
3 


4 PREFACE 


the world it is necessary to dispel hate from the 
hearts of men.’ This story of A Son of a Savage 
has been written to illustrate anew the reality of 
the only power that can uproot hate, and plant 
love in men’s hearts, and make the nations to 
dwell together in harmony. It is the power of 
the Christian Message. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER PAGE 
I. His Native Land - ~ - - 9 
II. Strange Customs of His People - 15. 
III. Their Religion - - ~ - - 25 
IV. Early Days - - - - - aN 
V. A Reign of Terror - - - : 45 
VI. Conversion and Service for Others - 53 
VII. Preaching and Translation Work - 65 
VIII. In the White Man’s Land - - - 79 
IX. Some Incidents - - - - - 95 
X. The Leader of his People - - - 107 


XI. His Passing - - - - - - 115 





LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 


Daniel Bula - ~ - ~ - Frontispiece 
TO FACE PAGE 
Paraso Bay—Vella Lavella - - - ~ 12 
Type of Vella Lavellan—Showing Enlarged 
Ear-Lobe - - : ~ ~ - 13 
Raw Material—A Vella Lavellan Boy- - 13 
Lobe-Piercing—A Vella Lavellan Custom - 17 
A Greyhound of the Deep - - - : 18 
A Young Warrior of Vella Lavella with 
Head Ornament - - - - - 24 
An ‘Angry’ Sky—Off Coast of Vella 
Lavella - - - - - - - 25 
A Shrine at Vella Lavella - - ~ - 28 
Canoes with ‘Souls’ - - - - - 29 
Emblems of Religious Ritual - - - 29 
Dance of Victorious Head-Hunters—Vella 
ee i oS a ee ee aS 
Prow of War Canoe - - - - - 33 
Plucking his Beard - - - - - 40 
Head-Quarters—1907_  - - - - - 41 
Clearing Site for Mission House - ~ - 41 
~ - - 48 


Head-Hunters of Vella Lavella 
7 


8 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 


TO FACE PAGE 


Map of Vella Lavella - aiff - = 49 
Climbing Coconut Trees -_ - - - 56 
Kapok Trees and ‘ Widows’ Retreat’ - - 56 
A Gathering of Vella Lavellans - - - 57 
Daniel and his Boys - ~ - - - 60 
A Tree Fernery - - - - - - 61 
The ‘Express’ - “ - - - - 72 
A Glimpse of Vella Lavella - - aes i 
Road to Mission House—Vella Lavella_ - 73 
Daniel and Two of His Boys . = 76 
Daniel and Alex - - - - - - 77 
Chums - - ~ - - - - - 80 
Daniel and Baby Burton—i917 - - - 81 
Daniel and ‘Nikolo’ - - - ora = 88 
Daniel’s Orphanage~ - - - mth he 89 
sago Palms—The Leaves are used for | 
Thatching - - - - ~ - 89 
Daniel and Ian—Black Teaching White - 104 
Daniel and his Wife-—Rini - - - - 104 
Christmas Sport at Vella Lavella - «gS 
Daniel Addressing Missionary Gathering - 112 
Drill at Vella Lavella - - - - ~ SETS 
The Hour of Worship - - - - - 113 


Sunday at Vella Lavella_ - - ” - 113 


THE SON OF A SAVAGE 


CHAPTER I 


His Native Land 


AWAY to the north-east of Australia, at a 
distance of about four hundred miles east of New 
Guinea, and scattered over six hundred miles of 
sea space, lie two great parallel chains of islands. 
These are The Solomons. _ 

The north chain of this great group embraces 
Bougainville, Choiseul, Ysabel, and Malaita; the 
south chain Vella Lavella, Kulambangra, New 
Georgia, Guadalcanar, and San Cristoval. These 
large islands are all volcanic, and range from 
thirty miles to one hundred and forty miles in 
length and 3,000 feet to 10,000 feet in height. 
Besides these, there are hundreds and thousands 
of smaller ones which vary in size from twenty 
miles long to mere dots—bunches of evergreen. 

In Stewart’s Handbook we read that, with the 


exception of New Guinea, the Solomons have 
9 


10 THE SON OF A SAVAGE 


been longer known to Europeans than any other 
croup of islands in the South Pacific. They were 
first located in 1568 by Mendana—the Spanish 
navigator. It is said that he was so impressed 
with the possibilities of this group that he gave 
it the name of the Islands of Solomon, in the hope 
that his countrymen, believing it to be the source 
from which King Solomon got the gold for his 
temple, would make a big effort to settle there. 
This effort was not made until about thirty 
years afterwards, owing, no doubt, to the fac. 
that King Phillip II of Spain had too many 
matters on his mind. It was a busy period—the 
period in which the Invincible Armada appeared 
and disappeared; but after this long delay 
Mendana set out in 1595 with a definite commis- 

sion to colonize the Solomons. His ships were © 
full of adventurous men and women who were 
keen to make their fortunes and equipped with 
everything necessary for the founding of the new 
colony. He failed, however, to find the 
Solomons, and his sickly, broken-hearted, scurvy- 
stricken colonists were compelled to form them- 
selves into a settlement at the largest island of 
the Santa Cruz group—only a couple of hundred 
miles away. A few weeks later the brave 
Mendana died. The survivors then set sail again 
in further search for the Solomons, but they met 


HIS NATIVE LAND 11 


with no success, and after suffering great priva- 
tions they arrived back at Peru, from whence 
they started, after an absence of two years. The 
Solomons then totally disappeared for two 
hundred years from the knowledge of the white 
man, and came to be regarded as mythical. They 
were re-discovered by Captain Cartaret in 1767.’ 

Because of their size, productiveness, and 
future possibilities, the Solomon Islands are the 
most important group of islands in the Pacific, 
south of the Equator. During the past few years 
the commercial development of the group has 
made rapid progress, and no less than 50,000 
acres have been planted up with coconuts. With 
the exception of Bougainville (now under the 
Australian Mandate) the Solomons and adjacent 
islands constitute a British Protectorate, the total 
area of which is about 9,500,000 acres, or an area 
nearly twice the size of Fiji. The native popula- 
tion is estimated at 150,000. 

Situated in the western portion of this group 
is the beautiful island of Vella Lavella—the birth- 
place of Daniel Bula. Vella Lavella is approxi- 
mately thirty miles long and eight miles wide, 
and has a range of rugged mountains which 
extend the whole length of the island. Some of 
the peaks are very precipitous, and rise to a 

1 Stewart’s Handbook of the Pacific Islands (1923), p. 148. 


12 THE SON OF A SAVAGE 


height of 3,000 feet. In the district of Paraso 
there are large sulphur deposits, mud geysers, 
and boiling springs. From its shores to its 
highest mountain peaks the island is a tangle of 
triumphant vegetation. Trees and palms and 
creepers of every description are crowded to- 
gether in wild profusion. The varied foliage, 
ranging from brightest yellow through all the 
shades of brown and green and red, makes the 
jungle a gigantic garden. Rare hot-house plants 
run riot everywhere. It seems as though Nature, 
in order to compensate the people for their primi- 
tive ways and means, has made their land as 
perfect as possible. The extraordinary fertility _ 
of its soil, its numerous food-products—ineluding 
the great groves of coconut palms which fringe 
its coast-line—make it one of the most desirable 
islands in the whole of the Solomons. 

Like other parts of the Pacific, Vella Lavella 
has no large animals—the largest are pigs and 
dogs, which it is believed existed before the 
discovery of the island by Europeans. The wild 
dogs are most savage. They hunt for pigs in 
packs, and are known to have attacked the 
natives. Crocodiles are very common, and are 
to be seen in the swamp lands and inlets along 
the shore. Birds of every hue and colour abound. 
King-fishers, cockatoos, hawks, brush turkeys, 





Photo J. M. Beattie Hobart. 
PARASO BAY, VELLA LAVELLA. 


face p. 12 





TYPE OF VELUA LAVELLAN, 
Showing enlarged ear lobe. 





Photo J. M. Beattie Hobart. 
RAW MATERIAL. 
A Veila Lavella Bov. 


HIS NATIVE LAND 13 


parrots and pigeons are particularly plentiful. 
Snakes, lizards, centipedes, scorpions, spiders, 
bats, flying-foxes, butterflies, sandflies, mos- 
quitoes and minute creatures of all kinds are 
innumerable. The surrounding seas are full of 
the wonders of the deep. Whales, sharks, por- 
poises, turtles, as well as the tiniest members of 
the finny tribe find a congenial home in these 
tropic waters. Good-eating fish are in abundance. 

But the favourable natural conditions of life on 
Vella Lavella did not deliver its people from the 
dense darkness of horrible heathenism. They 
were a cruel, crafty, vicious race, and were 
numbered among the worst savages of the 
Pacific. Black in skin, thick-set, of medium 
height, with comparatively good features, topped 
with frizzy hair, naturally quick in thought and 
action in all matters peculiar to their own life, 
they were the victims of the vilest superstitions 
and the slaves of the most brutal customs. Head- 
hunting was their chief concern. As a matter 
of fact, no sooner would they return from one 
head hunt than they would begin to prepare for 
another. The building of war-canoes, the making 
of paddles, the sharpening of battle-axes, the 
renovating of shields and the collecting of food 
took up practically all their time. There were 
no townships or streets. Houses were scattered 


14 THE SON OF A SAVAGE 


through the jungle in all directions, with narrow 
tracks leading from one dwelling to another; the 
semi-isolated position of the houses being ac- 
counted for by the fact that no man trusted his 
neighbour. 


CHAPTER II 


Strange Customs of His People 


THE natives of the South Sea Islands may be 
divided into the Kava Drinkers and the Betel-nut 
Chewers. Broadly speaking the Kava Drinkers 
are the Polynesians and the Betel-nut Chewers 
are the Melanesians. 

According to the theory of Dr. Rivers there 
were two great invasions of immigrants, who 
entered the South Seas in pre-historic times from 
a now extinct Indo-African continent which it is 
believed stretched across the Indian Ocean. The 
first of these migrants settled in Southern 
Melanesia, Fiji, and Polynesia, and brought with 
them the kava-root custom as a fully developed 
practice. The second brought the custom of 
betel-nut chewing, and did not extend their 
south-easterly movement beyond the Solomons 
and the Santa Cruz group. It is to this second 
class of migrants—the Betel-nut Chewers—that 
the people of Vella Lavella belong. A remark- 


able fact concerning them, however, is that (al- 
15 


16 THE SON OF A SAVAGE 


though their island lies in the heart of Melanesia) 
they are not Melanesians. They belong to that 
non-Melanesian group of Western Pacific natives 
known as Papuans. Their language conclusively 
proves this. Excepting that of the small island 
of Savo, it has nothing in common with the rest 
of the Solomons, and it is regarded as one of the 
most difficult in the whole group. | 
Once numbered among the most treacherous 
savages of the South Seas, the natives of Vella 
Lavella are an exceedingly interesting people. 
Their old customs make a fascinating study. 
Many of these show a striking similarity to 
Egyptian customs. For instance, an eclipse of 
the sun was a signal for all the people to rush 


out of their houses and to make all the noise © 


and uproar possible by blowing their couch shells 
and beating their pigs with the object of driving 
away the demon who was doing all the damage. | 
The same custom is found in Egypt. Babies 
were invariably kept dirty and unattractive so 
that they should not bring down upon their 
mothers the envy of evil spirits. Egyptian 
children are kept dirty for the same reason— 
namely, to deceive the demons. Strange as it 
may seem, this deception was not only practised 
by the mothers; it was a general custom. 

When a child of Vella Lavella was quite young 


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STRANGE CUSTOMS OF HIS PEOPLE 17 


a hole was made in the lobe of each ear to 
represent ownership by the tribe. One wonders 
whether the origin of this custom can be traced 
to a similar custom amongst the ancient 
Egyptians. In Exodus, chapter xxi. and verse 6, 
we read of the boring of the servant’s ear as a 
mark of life-long ownership. The pierced lobe 
of the Vella Lavellan had precisely this 
significance. If a child had no hole through his 
ear he was regarded as nobody’s property; he 
was nothing better than a vagrant animal. The 
custom was to fill the opening in the lobe with a 
piece of banana leaf made into a tight roll like 
a Red-Cross bandage. This leaf acted as a spring, 
and enlarged the hole until something heavier 
and bigger could be inserted. At different times 
the writer has seen pieces of wood, sparklet- 
boxes, breakfast cups, and even kitchen clocks, 
inside the lobes of men’s ears. Before starting 
off on a pig hunt the men who had particularly 
long dangling lobes used to tie them under their 
chins in order to prevent them from catching in 
the undergrowth and being broken. 

It was the custom on Vella Lavella for a dying 
man to be hurried to his home in order that his 
Spirit might go quietly to its new abode and find 
proper rest. The spirit of the departed was 
greatly feared. It was supposed to be particu- 

2 


18 THE SON OF A SAVAGE 


larly active immediately after death, and to 
remain for some days near to the body that had 
so long sheltered it. The greatest care had to 
be taken not to offend it. It could be made 
angry by opposition to its wili, or soothed and 
made helpful if treated with sympathetic con- 
sideration. On the death of a child the corpse 
was placed in an elevated position quite near to 
its parents’ house with a length of creeper 
connecting the house with the corpse; this was 
to save the spirit from being lonely in its new 
surroundings. With the corpse of an adult were 
placed many valued possessions, so that the spirit 
of the deceased might take their soul-value with 
it on its journey to the spirit world. Even fruit 
and other foods were ‘killed’ in order that the 
soul of them might be set free for the use of the 
departed. So with the Egyptians. 

When a man of Vella Lavella died, the body 
was placed in a squatting position up a tree, the 
branches of which reached out over the sea. 
After a suitable interval the head was removed | 
to the reef, where it was allowed to remain for 
some time. It was then placed in a shrine and 
held in most sacred regard. The Egyptians also 
attach the greatest importance to the head; and 
when it is imposible to remove the corpse to its 
own locality, they will even take the hair of the 


STRANGE CUSTOMS OF HIS PEOPLE 19 


head and will see that this is put in its rightful 
place. 

The Vella Lavellans believed that the spirits 
of the dead journeyed across the sea, and that 
they found their way to the spirit world through 
holes and crevices in the volcanic rocks of other 
islands. The tradition that their ancestors had 
come from a far-off land would account for this 
belief. One particular entrance to the spirit 
world was a hole in the cliff of the island of 
Simbo thirty miles away. This cliff rises 
precipitously out of the water, and there is no 
access to the hole except from the sea. 

Mourning occupied an important place in their 
social life, and was always attended with much 
feasting. The initial mourning and feasting 
lasted for ten days, which was believed to be 
the period the soul of the departed hovered 
around the corpse. Other seasons of mourning 
with feasting were observed, some even as late 
as the ninetieth day. The women were the chief 
mourners, and took it in turn to lead the weeping 
and the chanting. : 

Widow-strangling was carried on extensively 
throughout the length and breadth of the island. 
There were many methods of carrying out this 
cruel practice. The usual way was to pass alength 
of creeper around the neck of the victim and to 


20 THE SON OF A SAVAGE 


haul on it fromboth ends. Sometimes the woman, 
after being dragged to one side as dead, showed 
signs of life; the process was then repeated until 
death was beyond dispute. Should a widow 
escape strangling she was regarded as a creature 
of evil omen. She was made to live a life of 
isolation, and was absolutely forbidden to cut 
her hair. In the event, however, of a refund 
of the marriage purchase price being satisfac- 
torily arranged, she regained her liberty and 
again became eligible for marriage. Marriages 
were entirely regulated by kinship. Although 
a man could possess as many wives as he could 
purchase, he was never permitted to marry a 
woman with whom descent from a common — 
ancestor could be traced. 7 

Women were hopelessly downtrodden. They 
had no voice even in the matter of their own 
marriage. They often strangled themselves be- 
cause they had so little interest in life. Ifa girl 
did not like the man to whom she was sold in 
marriage, she too would strangle herself. The | 
usual price for a wife was a pig and a few shell 
arm-rings. The wife was always the slave of 
her husband, the beast of burden, an object of 
scorn and abuse. No one had a kind word for 
her. The worst lot on the island in those days 
was just to be a woman. And yet, notwithstand- 


STRANGE CUSTOMS OF HIS PEOPLE 21 


ing the weariness, and the suffering, and the 
pathos of a woman’s life on Vella Lavella, 
women were of very great importance—and still 
are—in that all land belongs to a clan of 
matriarchal descent called a toutou. There is no 
individual ownership; in every case the land 
belongs to this toutou. As a matter of fact the 
toutou is the strongest term of relationship on 
the island, and represents the most important 
factor in the social life of the people. Children 
always belong to the clan of the mother and 
never to that of the father. It is because of the 
tremendous significance of the toutou in land 
matters that marriage was the cause of much 
intertribal fighting. 

In common with other Western Solomon 
Islanders the Vella Lavellans show considerable 
skill in all matters affecting theirevery day wants. 
Their canoes in particular reveal superb crafts- 
manship. For grace of line and swiftness they 
are unsurpassed. They are made of specially 
selected timbers, which are adzed into planks and 
sewn together with strong fibres. The caulking 
is done with a vegetable pitch. They are beauti- 
fully inlaid with mother-of-pearl and decorated 
with white cowrie shells, showing that the people 
possess a practical appreciation of artistic effect. 
In these canoes, which carry from twenty to 


22 THE SON.OF A SAVAGE 


forty men, they would travel for two or three 
hundred miles on their great head-hunting 
expeditions. Their fish-hooks, fishing-nets, 
twine, rope, baskets, as well as their knowledge 
of timbers and herbs, make it clear that they are 
not lacking in capacity and resourcefulness. 
Dress is a simple matter, and, in such a hot 
climate, it needs to be. For the men and boys it 
consists of a ‘T’ piece of native cloth passed 
between the legs and fastened around the waist. 
The women and girls wear a bustle made of the 
same material. They all had weird ways of 
treating their hair. Usually it was more 
like a tangle of tarred rope than anything 
else; though sometimes it was _ bleached 
white with lime made from burnt coral. The 
bleaching was done by simply wetting the 
hair with water and rubbing in the lime. In 
a very short time—a matter of a few days—the 
hair turned yellow, and then quite white. A 
crownless hat is often worn. There is no need 
for the people to have crowns to their hats, 
because their thick frizzy hair is a natural protec- 
tion against the sun. The ‘ hat’ is really an eye- 
shade, which is used mostly at fishing on a day 
of dazzling heat when the sea is like molten 
silver. 
At war-time and on festive occasions it was the 


STRANGE CUSTOMS OF HIS PEOPLE 23 


custom for the men to paint their faces and 
bodies with lime, and to wear all kinds of 
ornaments. Believing the ornaments to possess 
soul-value, they were worn in order to increase 
their own powers. Some of these decorations, 
as works of native art, are very beautiful. Neck- 
laces, belts, arm-rings, carvings in pearl, and clam 
shells of different designs, all show most pains- 
taking care. The doula, however, with its 
delicate tracery of tortoise-shell fretwork on 
a disc of snow-white clam shell, is a masterpiece. 
It is, perhaps, the most exquisite native ornament 
in the whole of the South Seas. 

Diet is made up of taro, yams, bananas, sweet 
potatoes, breadfruit, and coconuts. In season 
other nuts are collected in great quantities from 
the jungle trees. Nut-puddings, called bomboros, 
are made of bananas, nuts, yams, and taro, all 
mashed together and bound in leaves, and cooked 
over a Slow fire. In connexion with the erection 
of a large canoe house at which there would be 
a human sacrifice, the people would give them- 
selves up to the making of bomboros for several 
months before the great day of ‘ taking posses- 
sion,’ Fish, pig, and turtle are the only flesh 
foods. The principal meal of the day is at four 
o'clock in the afternoon. This is generally all 
vegetable food, and is cooked in hot stones, 


24 THE SON OF A SAVAGE 


which are covered with many layers of soft 
leaves. The only other meal is at daylight—the - 
hour of rising. ‘This meal, however, is a very 
casual affair. No preparation is made. It 
amounts to the eating of a piece of the cold 
yam or taro left over from yesterday’s meal. 
Often the natives will go right through until 
four o’clock with nothing more than a piece of 
coconut or a chew of betel-nut. The custom of 
chewing the betel-nut is an ugly one, involving 
the constant spitting of red juice. The nut is 
about an inch in diameter, and is very astringent. 
The natives bite off a bit of the nut and chew it 
with the green leaf of a bush pepper plant, and 
add a little of the native lime. The mixture has 
a strong, stimulating effect, and is greatly 
relished by young and old of both sexes. Often 
it is the only nourishment the men take with 
them on a whole day’s canoe journey. 





Photo E. A. Salisbury. 
A-YOUNG WARRIOR OF VELLA LAVELLA 
with Head Ornament. 


face p, 24 


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CHAPTER III 
Their Religion 


IN their religion the people of Vella Lavella 
were Animistic. They believed that all natural 
phenomena had souls like their own. The sky, 
the earth, sun, moon, stars, rivers, rocks, animals 
and vegetation were all animated by wills and 
souls. The sea, with its storms and calms, the 
jungle with its solemn silences or monotone of 
sighing and moaning, the mountain with its 
clothing of clouds and changes of colour, all 
possessed personality. 

With us a peaceful sky and an angry sky are 
mere figures of speech, but not so with the Vella 
Lavellans. The same expressions with them 
were tremendously significant. To say the sky 
was angry was equivalent to saying that the spirit 
of the sky was angry. They never looked at a 
red sky, because it meant looking at an angry 
god, and they feared to do so. If a man were 


killed in falling from a tree-or drowned in 
25 


26 THE SON OF A SAVAGE 


the sea, it was the offended spirit of the tree or of 
the sea that had brought about his death for 
neglecting to observe some custom. 

They believed also that a canoe, a house, a 
battle-axe, a shield, a spear, in fact, every article 
useful to man, possessed more soul than anything 
in its natural state because the maker had put so 
much of himself into it. Not only did they be- 
lieve that everything they could see and handle 
had souls, but spirits were in the air, on land, 
in the sea—countless myriads of them. They 
came with the wind; they were present in the 
calm; the night was full of them. Men feared 
to journey after sunset. Anything touching their 
bodies in the dark as they passed along the 
narrow jungle-tracks was the hand of an angry 
spirit clutching at them. If a leaf from a tree 
dropped on them it was a message from the 
Spirit world and was full of foreboding. | 

A man of Vella Lavella believed he had two 
souls. One soul had possession of him during 
life, and at death animated something else; it was . 
part of an indestructible life-force that pervaded 
everything. His well-being depended upon its 
condition in his own body. It could be frightened 
away wholly or partially. If it left any part of 
him, that part of him became sick. Fainting was 
caused by the soul deserting the body 


THEIR RELIGION 27 


temporarily; when it left permanently, he died. 
The other soul (or spirit) came into power at 
-the death of the body, and was a continuation 
of his own individuality. 

The heathenism of the Vella Lavellans was 
not a denial of a Supreme Being, but complete 
ignorance of His Person and attributes. They 
believed in a First Cause or Creator, whom they 
called Banara. This Banara was regarded as 
immeasurably superior to all other spirits. But 
he was merely the Maker of all things, the Great 
Outsider who was not interested in their affairs. 
St. Paul’s words to the Romans might well have 
been written of them: ‘ Because that, when they 
knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither 
were thankful; but became vain in their imagina- 
tions, and their foolish heart was darkened. 
Professing themselves to be wise, they became 
fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible 
God into an image like to corruptible man.’ And 
this because they ‘ changed the truth of God into 
a lie, and worshipped and served the creature 
more than the Creator.’ 

The deities were either spirits of ancestors or 
demons of their own imaginings. They had 
appetites to gratify, tempers to be humoured, 
craftiness to be outwitted. The worship of them 
was at once degraded and degrading; for, being 


28 THE SON OF A SAVAGE 


creations of their own savage minds, they were 
like themselves—vicious and vile. There were 
no good spirits. The goods of life were taken 
without questioning as to how they came or 
where they came from. Causes were looked for 
only when evil came. The work of the spirits 
was believed to be always prompted by jealousy 
or anger. They were responsible for all troubles. 
all sorrows, all deaths, and for this reason 
were slavishly worshipped; the spirit which 
threatened most trouble was the one which 
received the most homage or worship. 

This worship was made by placing offerings 
of human heads, of food, or shell money at 
shrines, where the skulls of ancestors and 
relatives were preserved. The whole religious 
ritual of the Vella Lavellans centred around 
these skulls. They were regarded as capable of 
furnishing a permanent memorial of the dead, 
and were treasured in order that they might act 
as symbols to be honoured and propitiated, as 
well as mediums through which the spirits could - 
be adequately worshipped. 

The heads of enemies were valuable, because 
they were looked upon as possessing more soul- 
force than anything else, and were the hest 
offering that could be made to the spirits. The 
head was used as representative of the body, the 





Photo J. M. Beattie, Hobart. 
Mm ORRINE AL VELLA VAVELLA. 


face p. 28. 





Photo E. A. Salisbury. 
CANOES IWEEH SOULSe 





Proto E. A. Salisbury. 
EMBLEMS OF RELIGIOUS RITUAL. 
face 2p, 20. 


THEIR RELIGION 29 


custom having its origin in the idea of human 
sacrifice. Such offerings were always made on 
the occasion of building a large house or launch- 
ing a war-canoe. It was believed the spirits 
appropriated the soul-value of these sacrifices, 
and that, if they were generously treated, they 
would grant exemption from evil visitations. 

In offering to the spirits so valued a gift asa 
human head the motive was solely personal 
benefit. Life and its doings were charged with 
strange meaning. Because conduct either 
pleased or displeased the spirits, nothing was 
done haphazardly. In fact, things only went well 
for the living when they respectfully and 
punctiliously observed the customs of the race. 
Failure to observe any custom was the only 
wrong-doing known to them, and it was 
punished by the soul leaving some part of the 
body—perhaps the whole of it. Because 
deviation from ancient custom incurred the 
wrath of the ancestral spirits and demons the 
people lived in perpetual fear. Fear completely 
dominated their lives. It met them at every 
turn. There was no escape for them. Every one 
knew that every one else was seeking to enrich 
his own soul-force at the expense of his neigh- 
bour. And so fear reigned between the rich and 
the poor, the sick and the healthy, the young and 


30 THE SON OF A SAVAGE 


the old. There was no such thing as mutual 
trust or goodwill; on the contrary,. man’s 
inhumanity to man was daily demonstrated. 

Often a common sorcerer would be blamed for 
seeking the aid of a malicious spirit to bring 
about the illness of a neighbour. This sorcerer 
was Called a basa. He was the cad of the village; 
a mean sneak whom no one respected. He had, 
however, hypnotic power, and was believed to 
be able to cause the sickness or death of any 
person against whom he had spite. His method 
was to collect filthy remains of fruit skins and 
other garbage, and to bury these secretly in the 
ground, at the same time muttering the name 
of his victim and calling in the aid of the spirit. 
Should he be suspected of causing an illness, the 
most revolting cruelty was practised on him in 
order to make him admit his guilt. The favourite 
custom was to hang him by the wrists. If he 
confessed, the spell was broken, and the victim 
invariably recovered. 

The Vella Lavellans were, in their own crude. 
way, very religious. Visible things were only 
emblems. The spirit life was the real life. Head- 
hunting, widow-strangling, child-murder and 
cannibalism all had spiritual significance. For 
instance, in head-hunting it was believed that the 
more human heads one accumulated in this life 


THEIR RELIGION 31 


the better time one would have in the spirit- 
world. The native word for murder and bravery 
was the same. To be a brave man one had to 
prove the strength of one’s spirit by murder— 
by head-hunting. If a man passed through life 
without taking a single head, his spirit was put 
to the test in a sort of ‘no man’s land,’ where he 
was matched in conflict against a spirit of equal 
powers. The outcome of the fight decided the 
rank of his spirit. 

Cannibalism was always a religious rite. A 
portion of the neck of the enemy was eaten in 
the belief that in this manner they would gain 
his strength. They did not eat human flesh be- 
cause it was tasty or because they were hungry. 
It was never an article of diet. The custom of 
widow-strangling was based on the belief that it 
was right and proper for the widow’s spirit to 
accompany that of her husband to the spirit- 
world so that she might continue to serve him. 
Child-murder was carried out principally with the 
weakly baby girls. What was the use, they said, 
of having the bother of bringing them up if they 
were not likely to be strong enough for hard 
work in the gardens; besides, their spirits would 
be better off in the spirit-world. If one of twins 
was a girl, she was always strangled at birth. 
Again, if a mother greatly mourned the loss of 


32 THE SON OF A SAVAGE 


her child she was strangled, so that the spirits 
of both mother and child might be reunited. 

It will be seen that the spiritual shadows 
which enveloped this sunlit isle of Vella Lavella 
were black and penetrating. The people knew 
nothing of love, nothing of joy, nothing of 
peace. Customs inherited from former genera- | 
tions paralysed independent thought; robbed 
them of personal aspiration; terrorized their 
lives; saddened their souls; made brutal their 
behaviour towards women and little girls; gave 
them a demoralized conception of the value of 
human life, and bound them helplessly and des- 
pairingly with superstition and with fear. And 
it was into such an environment that there was 
born the baby boy Bula, who, for the first twelve 
years of his life, was trained and and instructed 
in all the vicious and blood-thirsty practices of 
his people. 


‘WYTIHAV'T WTIHA SYHLNOH-GVAH SQOIMOLOIA AO HONVA 
“AANQSUDS “Pp “A 01OUd 








Photo E. A. Salisbury. 
PROW OF WAR CANOE 


face pb. 33 


CHAPTER IV 


Early Days 


THE parents of Bula were both outstanding 
personalities. His father was not only a 
notorious head-hunter, but a man greatly feared 
amongst his own people. He had a demon-like 
temper. Once, in a fit of jealous rage, he killed 
a kinsman who, he thought, was undermining 
his influence in the tribe. He was skilled in the 
use of native herbs. Bula’s mother possessed 
peculiar hypnotic power, and often exercised 
witchcraft. She was very tall and had a com- 
manding presence. Her influence amongst the 
women was very great. 

The days of childhood on Vella Lavella were 
very different from those in a Christian country. 
Baby life had to struggle against its sicknesses 
in filthy surroundings, under totally unhygienic 
conditions, and was always subject to the whims 
and passions of savage parents. Bula’s infant 
days were no exception. On one occasion his 
father in anger tied him into a basket, which 
he concealed in a tree, and then went off on a 


fishing expedition for several days, callously 
33 3 


34 THE SON OF A SAVAGE 


leaving the child to die. His mother found him 
in time to save his life. | | | 
Home, as we understand it, never existed. 
Because of constant intertribal fighting and the 
fact that so much time was taken up in head- 
hunting across the seas, houses were hurriedly 
built and the sites frequently changed. A house 
had one room, in which all the family, and all the 
visitors, and all the dogs and pet pigs of the family 


slept. Children matured very quickly. As soon 


as Bula could fend for himself he had to do so. 
At the age of ten he was practically his own 
master. He soon learnt to walk warily, to read 
signs, to conceal emotions, to handle the battle- 
axe, the shield, the spear. He was taught to be 
cruel and to kill. He found that even a little 
child was not safe a hundred yards from its own 


village. If he strayed away he might never be ~ 


heard of again. One of his earliest recollections 
was that of his father and himself coming across 
a boy of his own age near a neighbouring village. 
Knowing the boy to belong to a tribe towards 
which they had no friendly feelings, Bula’s father 
showed him how to murder the innocent laddie 
by smothering him. When we think of the 
infinite care that is taken to guard the children of 
Christendom from every ugly sight and ‘every 
evil suggestion, the revolting cruelty of this one 


ee 


EARLY DAYS 35 


act of savagery portrays to the mind a picture of 
absolute horror. And yet vicious acts such as 
these made up Bula’s early life. They constituted 
his environment. His sole ambition at this time 
was to be a head-hunter like his father—and so 
the Gospel found him. 

Going into a native hut a few days after my 
arrival at Vella Lavella, I saw, huddled up in the 
darkest corner, a little fellow of about twelve 
years of age. He was suffering intensely with 
inflamed eyes. Again and again he attempted 
to get a glimpse of the strange white man. At 
last he gave up trying. It was no use. The 
light caused him too much pain. He had to keep 
his face hidden in his hands and turned from the 
doorway. He was in such evident distress that 
I went back immediately to my own hut close 
by and prepared a bowl of warm boracic lotion, 
and took it to him. For at least an hour I 
bathed his raw eye-lids. He loved it. Whilst he 
continued the bathing I made a second trip to 
* Headquarters,’ broke open a case of personal 
effects, and got out a dark green celluloid eye- 
shade, which I had used during my student days. 
I placed this well down over his eyes and left 
him. The next morning I went to him again and 
tried to coax him to come back with me. I 
made signs to show that I wanted to doctor his 


36 THE SON OF A SAVAGE 


eyes again. But no! He either could not or 
would not understand. In the end I took him 
gently by the arm and led him to my hut. With 
a fresh warm lotion and a handful of absorbent 
cotton we began the bathing. For about a fort- 
night he came to me every morning and evening 
for treatment. There was an indefinable some- 
thing about the patient little chap that made an 
irresistible appeal to me. He was an unusual 
type—sensitive, independent, intense. My whole 
heart went out to him. It was to help such as 
he that I had come to Vella Lavella in the name 
of Christ. At the end of the fortnight his sore 
eyes were not only completely cured, but his 
entire confidence and loyal devotion had been 
won. His name was Bula. A comradeship then 
began, which became increasingly precious to us 
both with the passing of years, and lasted the 
whole of his life. | 
Bula became my cook-boy. At first he scarcely 
knew how to ‘ cook’ water. He did know, how- 
ever, how to light a fire, and this was his chief 
duty in the early days. It mattered not how 
early I rose in the morning, and it was usually 
at daybreak, I always found a fire big enough to 
roast an ox, the water in the kettle boiling away 
at a furious rate, and Bula sitting near at hand 
ready for the next job. He soon learnt to prepare 


EARLY DAYS 37 


the table for meals, but in the course of learning 
he made many queer mistakes. My hut had only 
one shelf. On this shelf were kept the stocks of 
tinned and bottled eatables and medicines. The 
eatables were supposed to occupy one end of the 
shelf and the medicines the other. Sometimes 
the things got mixed up. Prior to becoming my 
‘ Cookie’ Bula had rarely seen a tin or a bottle, 
and knew nothing of their contents. Conse- 
quently his first unaided efforts at setting out the 
table were highly amusing. His method was to 
select the best-looking tins and bottles! On one 
occasion I found Friar’s Balsam, Vaseline, Pain- 
killer, Eucalyptus, and Boracic Acid on the table 
with the butter, jam, pepper and salt! At another 
time, when the District Officer was dining with 
me, Bula placed in a prominent position on the 
table a large bottle of ink. Not feeling in a 
literary mood, we decided that the black fluid 
was not the sauce we wanted. Years later, 
when we were joking about his originality in 
setting a table, he explained that his idea had 
been to enable me to choose those things that I 
needed and to leave the rest. ... I certainly 
left the rest! It did not take him long, however, 
to become quite expert, not only in the arrange- 
ment of the dinner table but also in the prepara- 
tion of the dinner itself. 


38 THE SON OF A SAVAGE 


I remember one day Bula came to tell me that 
the meal was ready. He spoke the one word 
‘Sailao. I had never heard the word before, and 
and thought he said ‘ Sail-ho!’ and rushed to the 
beach in great excitement. With shaded eyes I 
scanned the horizon. No boat was to be seen 
anywhere. He soon came to me again, and 
pointing to the hut repeated the word ‘ sailao.’ 
This time I comprehended. I then and there 
learnt that ‘sailao’ was the general term for 
food and had nothing to do with the English 
term ‘ sail-ho!’ 

As ‘ Cookie’ Bula had to observe certain rules. 
One rule was to report all breakages. I ex- 
plained to him that in the case of a breakage he 
was not to conceal it but own up to it, and then 
there would be no further inquiry. One day the 
little chap came along with a broken saucer, and 
confessed that he was the culprit. I mourned 
not the saucer, but commended Bula for carrying 
out my instructions. Later I discovered that 
some one else had broken it. When I asked Bula 
why he had taken the blame, he replied, ‘ You 
told me that whenever anything was broken I 
must say J did it!’ Evidently my use of the lan- 
guage was not as lucid as it might have been. 
Bula had literally obeyed what he thought to be 
the rule of the house! 


EARLY DAYS 39 


These early days were full of queer happenings. 
Once I found Bula very carefully rolling up an 
old pair of my white trousers. When I asked 
him what he had there, he said, ‘ Alligator eggs— 
I am going to hatch them.’ He had found a nest 
of twenty-four eggs, had brought home two, and 
was keen on getting results. He said that in two 
days they would be ‘out.’ I was somewhat 
dubious about the matter, but told him to report 
progress. Sure enough, on the second day, two 
little brutes had discarded their shells and were 
crawling about the floor. We kept them for five 
or six weeks, but I had no fancy for such fierce 
pets and so dispatched them. 

This egg story calls to mind another. I had 
been given a setting of duck eggs, and had to 
put them under a broody hen. Bula wanted to 
know why I had been given eggs when we had 
plenty of our own. I explained that I wanted 
some ducklings. ‘ But,’ he said, ‘ you have put 
the eggs under a hen, so you will get chickens.’ 
No talking of mine could convince him to the 
contrary. His argument was—How could a hen 
be the mother of ducklings? It was manifestly 
absurd! However, in spite of him, ducklings 
duly arrived. 

But these were difficult days for Bula. He 
knew nothing of things beyond his local horizon. 


40 THE SON OF A SAVAGE 


His island home, with all its crude customs and 
superstitions, was his world. His friends and 
relatives did their utmost to dissuade him from 
giving himself to the ‘ Misinare’ (missionary). 
They played upon his fears; taunted him for 
putting his trust in a ‘ vaka maba’ (white man— 
lit. Ship man); warned him that they had never 
_ received good from the ‘men of the ships.’ And 
this was only too true. The first white men to 
visit the shores of Vella Lavella were the ‘ Black- 
birders, who began a scandalous trade in the 
seventies by kidnapping the strong and sturdy 
natives of the Solomons and selling them for 
good prices to the Queensland and Fiji planters. 
Bula’s people suffered sadly at the hands of | 
these slave traders. The story of their 
dastardly work has never been written. 
It is a tale of infamous deeds and abuse 
of native hospitality. It has been said that if 
all the facts of these dark ‘ blackbirding’ days 
were brought to light, they would form one of 
the blackest pages in the annals of human . 
history. It was a diabolical business from begin- 
ning to end. The author of Christianity in 
Polynesia states that ‘ “ blackbirding ” not only 
dealt out the cruellest injustices to the natives, 
but also lengthened for the missionary that night 
of toil through which he had to pass before the 





Photo E A. Salisbury. 
G HIS BEARD. 





face p. 40 





Photo J.-F.- Gotdie. 
THE AUTHOR AT HEADQUARTERS, 1907. 





Photo J. F. Goldie. 
CLEARING SITK FOR MISSION HOUSE. 
face p. 41 


EARLY DAYS 41 


dawn appeared.’ Thank God, those evil days 
are gone for ever! The total distrust of all white 
men which existed on Vella Lavella at the time 
of my arrival cannot be fully appreciated with- 
out this brief mention of the baneful influence of 
the ‘Blackbirders.’ 

It will be seen, therefore, that the taunts and 
warnings received by Bula were not meaning- 
less. But he had to stand against more than 
taunts and warnings. He was only a little fellow 
at this time, but in order to be loyal to me he 
fearlessly faced the loneliness of unpopularity 
and the active antagonism of his people. So 
persistent were they in their attempts to turn his 
affection from me that they set the sorcerers at 
work and threatened him with sickness and with 
death. The Vella Lavellans profoundly believed 
in the power of evil thought and suggestion. 
(The pity was in those days they knew nothing 
of the positive power of good thought.) They 
believed that certain men of the tribe could bring 
disaster upon one by the concentration of evil 
thought. And they had reason for their belief, 
for it was invariably effective. In the case of 
Bula, however, it was all to no purpose. 

During all these days we were living in a hut 
at the shore, and our time was occupied very 
largely in making preparations for the building 


42 THE SON OF A SAVAGE 


of a permanent Mission House. A track had to 
be made through the jungle to the hill-selected 
for the site, and this site had to be cleared and 
the materials transported to it before building 
operations began. About a year was spent in 
this work. At last the house was completed, and 
the day came to move into it. For Bula this 
meant a testing time. An exceedingly vicious 
Spirit was supposed to possess this particular hill 
upon which we had erected the Mission House, 
and his people repeatedly told him it would kill 
him. I knew nothing of this until many years 
later. But Bula knew, and he was very conscious 
of the fact that he had broken through native 
custom, and that the worst the spirits could do 
was his due. Yet, although just emerging from 
barbarism, he was apparently fearless. With un- 
daunted courage and unswerving faith in his 
white friend he held to his new convictions. His 
decision to live with me on the very hill believed 
to be dominated by a malicious demon enables 
us to glimpse his calibre. 

We had not been long settled in the new house 
when one night Bula came to me in great con- 
cern. He said he could hear men coming up the 
hill in the direction of the Mission House. , He 
was sure that a crowd coming at that hour meant 
trouble. He could only think his own people 


EARLY DAYS 43 


were coming to take him away, as they had often 
threatened to do. Together we went out to the 
verandah, and were surprised to find a number of 
men carrying a small canoe. As they approached 
we could see that the canoe contained a badly 
wounded man. We recognized the man, and 
knew at once what had happened, for during that 
day there had been an intertribal fight at the 
nearest village. On hearing about it I had 
hurried to the spot, and had found that things 
were serious. Both sides were fully armed, and 
their blood was up. It had looked as if some 
killing were imminent. I had much ado to get a 
hearing, but eventually managed to stop the 
fight. Although the parties had separated, I had 
left with the feeling that the fight was not over. 
When we saw the wounded man in the canoe 
we knew that hostilities must have been re- 
newed. I told the men to bring him to the 
verandah. On examination I found a badly 
shattered knee, and knew that it was impossible 
to tackle it by the dim, uncertain light of a 
hurricane lantern. We put on a large boracic 
fomentation, and made the patient as comfort- 
able as possible till daylight. It was necessary 
to remove several fragments of bone and to put 
nine stitches in the muscle and eleven in the skin. 
I had barely completed the job when word came 


44 THE SON OF A SAVAGE 


that more fighting was going on. I had to leave 
Bula in charge of the wounded man and run to 
the scene of conflict. This time it was necessary 
to shout until I was hoarse and to almost work 
myself into a frenzy before the fighters would 
listen to what I had to say. This surgical case 
was the first that Bula had seen. It made a 
profound impression on him,and from that day he 
was always anxious to help me to ‘ mend’ people. 
My home now became Bula’s home in very 
truth. We were always together. Believing that 
trust begets trust, I increased his responsibilities 
and let him understand that he was in charge of 
the house and its belongings. The fact that he 
was personally responsible for things did him 
good. He developed rapidly, and soon revealed 
that peculiar keenness of observation which dis- 
tinguishes the more intelligent type of South Sea 
Islander. The acquisition of the language at this 
time brought us into a daily fellowship of the 
most intimate nature. I wanted the name of 
everything that was in heaven above, or in the 
earth beneath, or in the water under the earth. 
Note-book after note-book was filled with words 
and idioms. And then, as my knowledge of his 
speech increased, I was able to tell him more and 
yet more of that greatest regenerating force in 
the history of man—The Story of Jesus Christ. 


CHAPTER V 


A Reign of Terror 


ABOUT this time, with sudden swiftness, there 
descended upon Bula’s people a veritable reign 
of terror. Sito, an outlaw chief of Vella Lavella, 
who had defied the Government for many years, 
planned and carried out the destruction of a 
trader’s household, involving the murder of his 
wife, children, and native servants. The days 
that followed were full of terrible experiences, 
and mark an epoch not only in Bula’s career but 
also in the history of the Mission. 

A few hours after the perpetration of the 
massacre, an urgent message was received from a 
trader-friend requesting me to join him at the 
scene of the tragedy, as it was feared the 
murderers would return for loot. I quickly made 
arrangements for leaving the station, and set out 
on the twenty miles’ journey in a big native 
canoe. Four hours of heavy going against a 
choppy sea brought us to the quiet waters of 
the trader’s lagoon. He had left early that morn- 


ing on a trading trip, and knew nothing of the 
45 


46 THE SON OF A SAVAGE 


outrage. As we drew near to this little stone 
jetty we were fired at by a crowd of excited 
labour ‘ boys,’ who had just returned from their 
work. They were in a panic, and when they saw 
our great canoe decided that we were Sito’s fol- 
lowers coming for plunder. On going ashore we 
found mutilated bodies in all directions—the 
victims were lying just where they had been 
struck down. The friend who had sent for me 
was alone at the trader’s house a little distance 
away. He had heard the approach of our canoe, 
and, thinking it contained the returning head- 
hunters, was waiting for them with his loaded 
Winchester. 

This wholesale slaughter of a white man’s 
family sent a thrill of insecurity through the 
whole of the Western Solomons, and all the 
Vella Lavellans came under suspicion. Within 
a week or two the Government took action, and 
organized a punitive expedition. I was strongly 
urged for safety’s sake to leave the island, but 
this was out of the question. The Government 
offer of police protection was also unthinkable. 
My duty was to stand by the local natives. The 
innocent were likely to suffer for the guilty. I 
had to show them that I trusted them and give 
them a bigger opportunity to trust me. For three 
years I had travelled by native canoe up and 


A REIGN OF TERROR 47 


down Vella Lavella striving to win their con- 
fidence. Ugly gashes on arms and legs were 
stitched, bones were set, and callous ulcers 
treated without the slightest show of gratitude. 
Apparently I had made little impression upon 
them. Now they were in trouble. They needed 
a friend, for their island was to be ransacked 
from end to end. The Resident Commissioner 
emphatically expressed his determination to cap- 
ture the dreaded Sito and his bloodthirsty gang 
at all costs; and, to serve his purpose, he allowed 
a number of traders to dump down on Vella 
Lavella hundreds of their native labourers. 
These, with a large body of so-called native 
police, having been left without any control, in- 
dulged in head-hunting on their own account, and 
committed diabolical deeds. Not only was there 
the destruction of mission property and food 
gardens at outstations, but almost every day for 
a fortnight tragic and heart-rending reports 
reached us of the slaughter of innocent lives. 
At the very outset of the trouble I requested 
the Commissioner to permit the local natives, 
who had an intense knowledge of the Vella 
Lavellan bush, to join in the search; but the 
request was refused. With unjustifiable hostility 
he said he believed all the locals were in league 
with the guilty gang, and told me to warn them 


48 THE SON OF A SAVAGE 


that if any of them were found in the bush they 
would be shot at. The Vella Lavellans looked 
upon the Mission as a City of Refuge, and came 
to us in hundreds for protection. Scores of 
shelters were hurriedly erected. Every innocent 
man, woman, and child was made welcome. Our 
Head Station became the one safety zone on the 
whole island. Not until we had had a fortnight 
of bloodshed and plunder did the Commissioner 
accede to my request—a request which I had 
made at the beginning and repeated at our every — 
meeting—that the local natives be allowed to 
help in the work of capturing the outlaws. Up 
to this time we had been treated by the Govern- 
ment as though we were deliberately. sheltering 
Sito and his followers, and consequently the 
police and the traders’ savage hordes did not 
hesitate to destroy mission buildings at out-— 
stations, as well as the houses, canoes, gardens, 
and other property of those natives who were in 
any way friendly towards our work. 

I shall never forget the immense relief I felt 
when the necessary permission to assist in the 
search was granted to the local people. They 
knew every hill and dale of the island, and they 
knew, too, the likely haunts of the outlaws, so I 
did not anticipate that they would have difficulty 
in running them down. I immediately called the 


"ob *d aan{ 


"LANQSYDS “P “A OJON VTIHAVI WIIHA AO SYALNNH-GVHH 





MISSION 
STATION DOBEL 


MUNDO! MUNDI\ & peraniend 





MOUNTAINOU 
SZ 


COUNTRY WITH 


z= 
PRECIPITOUS PEAKS — MISSION 
Za 
= 
Zs 


STATION “KOKOLop: 


MISSION 
Jurio)™ station ANO RioGES 





pas 
S MISSION 
STATION @ 


Ae 
= 

MISSION 

TATIONS! NAR AVA 





BAGGA I$ OX SCENE OF 
MASSACRE 

(see ChapterV) vie 

R 


Ss 
= 
—=s 
> SS mission 
STATION 
 ELEOTEVE 


MISSION 
SIRULANDO 7 w MIS3101 
MOUNTAINOUS 
COUNTRY WITH 
PRECIPITOUS PEAK 
AND RIDGES 






ISLAND OF 


° VELLA LAVELLA 
. 0 








MISSION 
STATION é 


D 


MAP CF VELLA LAVELLA. 
face p. 49. 


A REIGN OF TERROR 49 


Vella Lavellans together, and made it clear that 
we could not expect to have peace until Sito and 
every one of his followers had been brought to 
account. A definite plan of action was decided 
upon. Several parties were formed, and each 
party was allotted a different district and in- 
structed to keep a careful watch over every food 
garden and all other places where the head- 
hunters might be likely to go in search of food. 
I told them not to return to the Mission Station 
until they came with prisoners. It may be 
thought that this was strange conduct for a 
missionary. It was; but strong measures were 
imperative. Someone had to do something, and 
so the local natives were sent out to hunt the 
head-hunters. There was no _ alternative. 
Women and children needed protection; 
tyranny had to be checked; the reign of terror 
had to stop. In a few days a prisoner and two 
baskets of heads were brought in, and these were 
dispatched to the Government Station at Gizo. 
The last prisoner of all was the notorious Sito. 
Bula’s own brother caught him, and brought him 
to me at midnight. He had had a terrific hand- 
to-hand struggle, during which Sito nearly suc- 
ceeded in tearing out his eyes. We immediately 
put Sito in my whale boat, and after an eleven 
hours’ pull against a strong tide, delivered him to 
4 


50 THE SON OF A SAVAGE 


the authorities. One could give gruesome 
particulars of outrages committed at the instiga- 
tion of traders who were hostile to our Mission, 
but this volume is not the place for such details. 
It only remains to be said that the Vella 
Lavellans themselves captured eleven of the 
thirteen outlaws, and in so doing not a single 
innocent native suffered in any way at their 
hands. | 

During the whole of this distressing time Bula 
was invaluable to me. His conduct eloquently 
proclaimed his devotion. The days were full of 
strife and turmoil. Messages constantly reached 
us that it was Sito’s intention to get the white 
missionary’s head, and Bula’s anxiety on my be- 
half showed that he believed the outlaw chief — 
would make every effort to carry out his purpose. 
Yet, in spite of his anxiety, he frequently told 
me how happy he was in the knowledge that his 
people had turned to me in their extremity for 
help and guidance. It was necessary for me to 
be here, there, and everywhere. For a fortnight 
I took a party of fifty to sixty to the bush gar- 
dens, and not a day passed without our coming 
into contact with the police. If I had not been 
with the Vella Lavellans these wandering police 
gangs most certainly would have been murdered, 
for the local natives were thoroughly enraged at 


A REIGN OF TERROR 51 


their behaviour. The trips to the gardens at 
the beginning of the raid took only an hour or 
two; but as soon as the gardens were destroyed, 
most of the day had to be spent in the search 
for food supplies. 

This Sito Trouble (as it is locally called) was 
not only the outstanding event which enabled 
us to prove our friendship, it was also the chief 
factor in bringing to pass that spirit of goodwill 
and confidence between the natives and our- 
selves, which we knew so well to be the primary 
requisite for successful work. This confidence 
was shown in increased attendances at the Sun- 
day services and day schools, as well as in the 
large number of permanent homes that were 
erected near to the Mission Station. I can recall 
the thrill of pleasure I experienced in the midst 
of the turmoil when the people first expressed 
concern for my well-being. Up to this time there 
had been little to encourage. Now they con- 
stantly urged me to keep a loaded gun on hand; 
to change the position of my bed each night; to 
lock doors; to pull down blinds. These and 
other things were advised, thereby revealing on 
the part of the people a lively interest in my 
welfare and demonstrating a definite friendliness. 
It was a new experience! 

Doubtless the underlying cause of this changed 


52 THE SON OF A SAVAGE 


attitude was our faith in God’s protecting power. 
I had often told the people that my God was a 
Shield, and had acted upon this word from the 
beginning of my residence amongst them, by 
having no doors to my native hut and no weapon 
for protection. And now this punitive expedition 
presented a supreme opportunity. Although we 
did not realize it at the time, a crisis had come 
for the cause of Christ on Vella Lavella. The 
trader up the coast had left the island in fear of 
his life. The natives had wondered whether the 
missionary would also leave or put his God to the 
test. Gladly I availed myself of the privilege to 
stand by the Preached Word, and to prove to the 
people that God, even my God, was able and 
willing to protect all those who put their trust 
in Him. And so at night, without taking any 
steps for my own safety, I was able to lay down 
in peace under the shadow of the Almighty and 
in the consciousness of His protecting care. Thus 
the missionary’s God was proven to be truly God. 
The dawn of the Christian Day now broke upon 
this land of dark heathenism and savage hearts 
became touched with the radiance of the Sun of 
Righteousness—the work of transformation had 
begun. 


CHAPTER VI 
Conversion and Service for Others 


BULA’S heart opened to the Gospel Message as 
a flower opens to the sun. To him was given a 
serene and unquestioning faith. As soon as he 
heard the glad tidings that “God so loved the 
world that He gave His only begotten Son, that 
whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but 
have everlasting life, he never for a moment 
doubted. It seemed the natural thing for him 
to believe. The Spirit of God must have acted 
directly upon him at once, for the deeper and 
finer instincts of his soul soon began to dominate 
his life. This was first seen in a sense of decency 
and a desire for cleanliness in body and mind. 

I do not know that there was any definite day 
in which Bula gave his heart to God, but he early 
entered into the consciousness of a new life, and 
manifested this by a beautiful trust in Jesus as 
his Saviour. When the time came for his bap- 
tism, I asked him if he would like to choose his 
own Christian name. ‘ Yes,’ he said, ‘I want to 


be called Daniel.’ He explained that when his 
53 


54 THE SON OF A SAVAGE 


people had been against him and he had felt 
lonely and afraid, he had always remembered the 
story of Daniel who dared to stand alone, and he 
had tried to be like Daniel. Of all the characters 
in the Old and New Testaments the Prophet 
Daniel had made the strongest appeal to him. 
And so Bula was baptized Daniel. I found it 
difficult, however, to call him by his new name. 
I had learnt to love him as Bula, and this was the 
name that always came readily to my lips. One 
evening he came to me greatly troubled. He 
said, ‘Why do you still call me Bula? God has 
given me a new heart. I know this. Why, then, 
do you not call me by my new name? I want 
to be called Daniel. This is my Christ name. 
You tell me that when Saul of Tarsus became 
a Christian his name was changed to Paul. So 
now that I am a Christian let my name be 
Daniel.’ From that day Bula became Daniel. - 
Daniel’s conversion gave to him the dignity 
of self-respect. It seemed to carry him past the 
lower and more halting stages of progress, and 
to enable him at the outset of his Christian 
life to break once and for all from the cruel 
customs of his people. The light of his Chris- 
tianized conscience shone upon them . and 
condemned them. He never turned back. As 
his new life began to unfold itself, it became — 


CONVERSION AND SERVICE 55 


apparent that he had a new feeling towards God 
as his Father in Heaven, a new consciousness of 
himself as a moral and responsible being, and a 
new sense of the worth of his soul and the souls 
of all men, because of Christ’s sacrificial death. 
These fundamental forms of Christian experience, 
similar in essence to those of the early apostles, 
made him realize that Christ had taken posses- 
sion of his heart, and that he was indeed a child 
of God. 

The abundant signs of transformation of life 
and character seen in Daniel at this time filled 
me with astonishment. He was a mere lad about 
sixteen years of age, just stepping out of super- 
stition, and yet he gave every evidence of being 
distinctly led by the Spirit of God. ‘For as many 
as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons 
of God.’ Daniel had not received the spirit of 
bondage again to fear. He had received the 
spirit of adoption whereby he was able to cry, 
‘Abba, Father.” The more I came to know him, 
the more I came to appreciate the depth and 
beauty of his soul. He had a mind intent on 
pleasing God. He loved to talk of things that 
are pure and lovely and of good report. Often 
during these days he would wait on the verandah 
after evening prayers in order that he might 
learn more of the Fact of Christ and what faith 


56 THE SON OF A SAVAGE 


in Him as a Saviour involved. The intrinsic 
majesty of the character of Christ appealed to — 
every part of his nature. Christ was truly en- 
throned upon his heart and regulated his life. 
The quickening of his religious conscience, the 
inflow of joy, the outflow of love, the knowledge 
of a moral energy within—these were all real 
experiences to him, and filled him with a great 
longing to bring his people to Christianity, so 
that they too might appropriate the message of 
the gospel and realize with him that it was truly 
“The power of God unto salvation to every one 
that believeth.’ 

Daniel now began to exercise a remarkable 
influence over the new converts, and was wonder- 
fully successful in strengthening and encouraging 
them to pursue with earnestness of purpose the 
path of Christian duty. I remember a testimony 
he gave in these early days at the Thursday 
afternoon class-meeting. With calm determina- 
tion writ plain on every feature of his strong 
face he said he was resolved that nothing should. 
hinder him in his Christian progress. The very 
opposition he had had to fight had strengthened 
him. Each victory was helping him some other 
to win. He then reminded us of Jesus having 
His face ‘ steadfastly set to go to Jerusalem,’ even 
though He knew that a cruel death awaited Him. 





Photo E. A. Salisbury. 


CLIMBING COCONUT TREES. 





Photo E. A. Salisbury. 


KAPOK TREES AND ‘ WIDOWS’ RETREAT.’ 
Head Mission Station, Vella Lavella. 
face p. 56 


Lied. aos 


*LANQsyvS “PR “ZT 0W0uUd ‘SNVTIOAVI VIIHA AO DNIVHHILVD V 








CONVERSION AND SERVICE 57 


He would be like Jesus. He would follow on- 
wards at all costs, neither turning to the right 
hand nor to the left. These words made a great 
impression upon our young people. This was 
seen in the fact that the boys on the Mission 
Station began to live a life of closer intercourse 
with one another in the spirit of Christian 
brotherhood. 

On one occasion Daniel said, ‘ I am not a white 
man (which fact was quite apparent). My father 
was a black man, my mother was a black woman, 
and I am black. You all know that I belong to 
this place. But although I am not from the 
land of the white man, I follow the white man’s 
God, because He ‘is the True God. I know He 
is the True God because His Spirit tells me so. 
But I made a mistake when I said that I followed 
the white man’s God. Jehovah does not belong 
to the white man only. There is not a God for 
the white man and another God for the black 
man. There is only one God, and He is the 
Father of all peoples of all places. He is my 
Heavenly Father and your Heavenly Father in 
the same way as He is Nikolo’s Heavenly Father. 
I love Him and He loves me. He has changed 
me. Iam different. You look at me and you see 
the same face and the same body, but I am new 
within. My thought is new, my joy is new, my 


58 THE SON OF A SAVAGE 


work is new, everything within the heart of me is 
new. To-day I measure my old life with my new 
life. The old life was full of filthiness of thought 
and word and deed. The Lotu (The Gospel 
Message) has made right the secret thoughts of 
my heart, and now my life is clean. It has taken 
away the old life and it has given me the new 
life—the life which is in Jisu Karisito (Jesus 
Christ). To-day my eyes are wide open. No 
longer do I desire to live as a dog or a pig, only 
caring for food, and sleep, and the wants of the 
body; my one thought now is to see to the well- 
being of my spirit, which never dies. The Lotu 
is a great power. It reigns in my heart and it 
enables me to defeat the evil forces of my life. 
The angry act, the lying tongue, the bad thought, 
the fear of the spirits are all conquered by the 
Lotu and by the Lotu only. The Lotu roots up 
hatred and plants love. I know this because the 
Lotu has done this good work in my own heart. 
The Lotu has lit up for me the spirit-path; it 
has given mea great joy. Accept the Lotu, and’ 
you too will be both happy and able to do the 
right.’ 

In these days a great deal of time was taken 
up in getting into touch with the natives. 
Nothing so pleased Daniel as to accompany me 
on what we termed The Round Trip, when Vella 


CONVERSION AND SERVICE 59 


Lavella was circumnavigated and every village 
visited. Often I had cause to be thankful that 
Daniel was with me. He knew intimately the 
characteristics of the people. When we met with 
a cool reception, and it was necessary to make a 
diplomatic departure, Daniel used to tell me the 
best moment to move on. Once we arrived ata 
distant village at sundown, and tried to make 
arrangements to rent a small hut for the night; 
every native we interviewed turned his back on 
us and walked away. We slept that night on an 
open platform where the people cooked their 
coconuts. At daylight Daniel remarked that it 
would be ‘ good’ not to intrude any longer, so 
we did not even wait or leave our usual ‘ card’ 
in the shape of a small present; we just quietly 
got away. Had we delayed, anything might 
have happened. On another occasion when we 
were refused shelter for the night we were com- 
pelled to camp in our whale-boat, which was 
anchored about a chain from the shore. Daniel’s 
concern for me that night is still fresh in my 
memory. At another time we landed at a strange 
village which seemed to be deserted. Daniel 
surmised that the people were watching us from 
the jungle, and in telling me this he added, in 
low tones, ‘ Don’t appear to be surprised if they 
come out.’ Within a few minutes after stepping 


60 THE SON OF A SAVAGE 


ashore at least fifty natives, armed with shields 
and battle-axes, made their way out of the bush 
from all directions. 

Daniel saw that the purpose of these ‘ Round 
Trips ’ was to win the confidence and goodwill of 
the people by relieving their pain and healing 
their sick. From the beginning he liked helping 
in this work, and became quite enthusiastic about 
learning all he could regarding our well-known 
household remedies and the giving of First Aid. 
He was an apt pupil. In a very short time he 
was able to stitch up cuts on arms and legs and 
heads, to dress sores, and even to fix fractures. 
This work created great interest amongst his 
people, for there was no such treatment for the - 
wounded before the advent of the missionary. 
One day when I was away from home a man 
was brought to the Mission Station with a 
broken leg. He had fallen from a high nut-tree. 
Daniel set the fracture, and the man made a 
perfect recovery. Once a labour ‘boy’ from a 
plantation came to us. He had been chopped > 
across the side of the head—the gash went right 
through the ear, laying bare the cheek bone and 
just missing the eye. Daniel was very keen to 
attend to this case, and so, after thoroughly 
cleansing the wound, I allowed him to put in the 
stitches and placed the boy entirely under his | 


og ‘d aon] 


“UOSJOYUIIN “DQ “MN 010Ud SAOd SIH AUNV /IHLD 








19 2d>99D] 
"CINQS1YS “Pp “A 0L0Yd ‘AUANYUHA WHAM V 





CONVERSION AND SERVICE 61 


care. He did his work splendidly, and soon the 
patient was as good as new. 

From this time Daniel relieved me of most of 
the minor surgical work—and delighted in it. 
Many dreadful cases of bites from sharks, 
alligators, and wild pigs were successfully treated 
by him. I remember the case of a boy of twelve 
from the island of Ranonga. This lad was play- 
ing in the sea with several other boys, when a 
shark savagely attacked him. A huge piece of 
flesh was almost completely bitten out of his 
thigh. Hearing his cries of terror, and seeing 
the blood-stained water, the other lads hurried 
to his assistance, and with difficulty got him 
ashore. His people roughly bound into position 
the great lump of flesh, and then rushed off with 
him in a big canoe to the Mission Station, fifteen 
miles across the sea. The poor boy arrived ina 
collapsed condition. Daniel at once took charge 
of the case and soon had the mutilated limb 
surgically clean and carefully sutured. His little 
patient made a wonderful recovery and eventu- 
ally got the full use of his leg. 

Some of the cases, however, took months to 
recover. A man of Malaita was brought to the 
Mission Station in a shocking condition. A week 
previously he had been badly mauled by a wild 
pig, and his three wounds had been entirely 


62 THE SON OF A SAVAGE 


neglected. Daniel tackled this trying case with 
as much enthusiasm as he showed in a nice clean 
split head or cut foot. For the first couple of 
weeks the patient needed a house to himself, 
but Daniel fomented his filthy wounds several 
times daily. As soon as healthy granulations 
began to appear, he took his patient into his own 
house and fed and tended him until he was able 
to return to the planter who had sent him to us. 
An even more distressing case was that of a lad 
who came to us for treatment from another 
island. This poor boy had suffered for years. 
Daniel gave him of his best for many months, 
and by his self-denying devotion won him to a 
Christian life. sf 

But perhaps Daniel’s finest work for others 
was seen in his Orphanage. To this he gave 
special attention and the devotion of a loving 
heart. For his purpose a large house of native 
materials was built on the Mission Station; two- 
thirds of the floor space being partitioned off 
for the orphans, and the other third being re- 
served for his own private use. Into this house 
he collected odd waifs and strays from all round 
Vella Lavella and adjacent islands. The place 
came to be known as Daniel’s Den of Lions. 
Sometimes as many as sixteen boys lived with 
him, and to all of them he acted the part of a 


CONVERSION AND SERVICE 63 


Christian parent. And not only did the orphans 
find a home with him; practically all the small 
boys on the Station preferred to live with him, 
and it paid richly in redeemed lives to let them 
do so. 

Daniel was filling a position and doing a work 
at this time that was distinctly his own. He was 
helping the young life of Vella Lavella to reach 
a standard that would have taken years to reach 
without him. By his personal testimony and 
teaching, and the influence of his own character, 
_ he was the leaven which was leavening the whole 
lump. His faith in Christ had taken such com- 
plete possession of his heart that it enabled him 
to introduce into his own conduct, and also into 
the lives of others, the vision of a higher and 
better life—a life of daily fellowship with God. 
In all things he set a good example, and this 
proved to be, as it always is, the best kind of 
teaching. 





CHAPTER VII 
Preaching and Translation Work 


DANIEL was now a tall, slim young man. His 
face indicated firmness and strength; and yet, 
withal, he manifested a charm of manner that 
was irresistible. So clearly did he comprehend 
the light and love and happiness which the gospel 
had brought to his own soul, and so convincingly 
was he able to tell others of his experience, one 
could not help knowing he was being taught of 
God and had a gift for preaching. 

During the early years his people were so 
sadly sunken in superstition and moral debase- 
ment that they were slow to understand the great 
truths of Christianity. Those who came to 
church did so armed with spears, shields, and 
battle-axes, for intertribal fighting was a com- 
mon occurrence, and each man mistrusted his 
fellow. Again and again I felt that it would be 
a great thing if only the gospel could be preached 
to the people by one of themselves. Hopefully 
did I look forward to the day when Daniel 
himself would be able to do this important work 


—and that day came. As he grew to manhood 
65 5 


66 THE SON OF A SAVAGE 


his religious convictions became stronger and 
deeper, until, in the glow of love that a real 
Christian experience inspires, he gave himself 
unreservedly to the great work of winning his 
people for God. 

It was an exceeding great joy to prepare 
Daniel for preaching. He was absolutely in 
earnest. Led by the light of a high resolve, he 
was determined to do all he could to make clear 
to his countrymen the great fact that there is a 
Heavenly Father who loves them with an ever- 
lasting love. Before long he was taking part in 
our Sunday afternoon services, and was able to 
tell with graphic realism the sacred stories of 
the Old Testament, and the parables of the New 
Testament. As he gained confidence and favour 
with his people, one could see that his message 
was reaching their hearts and enlightening their 
consciences. He was one of themselves, and 
therefore able to approach every subject from 
their own standpoint. 

Daniel became very apt in illustration. He 
found his most effective stories in the incidents 
of every-day life. On one occasion when speak- 
ing from the words, ‘Be still, and know that I 
am God,’ he said, ‘ You all know that I was:out 
at sea in my small canoe when that big squall 
came over us. I had a difficult time. I will tell 


PREACHING AND TRANSLATION 67 


you about it. The squall came upon me sud- 
denly, and I was far out on the ocean when its 
full force struck me. At first I tried with all my 
strength to get to the shore, but I soon found 
how useless and dangerous it was to battle 
against the winds and the waves. What did I 
do? I waited. It was best to be still. Therein 
lay my safety. If I had continued my struggles 
I would have swamped my canoe. I would have 
been lost. True, in the midst of the storm it was 
best to be still. The strength of the squall soon 
passed, and I was able to get home. In our 
spirit life it is just so. We are caught by squalls. 
Before we are aware of our danger we are in the 
midst of a raging sea of trouble. Waves of fear, 
of anger, of jealousy seem ready to submerge 
us. We struggle in our own strength to get out 
of our difficulties, and our struggling makes more 
trouble for us. What are we to do? We are to 
be still. We are to listen to God’s voice. He 
says, “ Be still, and know that I am God.” If we 
obey, all is well. So I say to you, obey God in 
the storms of your life. Wait for Him. He will 
take care of you. I have proved it. Be still. Be 
still. Be still, 

With Daniel the more familiar the happening, 
the more he liked to use it for the exposition of 
Divine Truth. I remember once when preaching 


68 THE SON OF A SAVAGE 


on the words, ‘Man looketh on the outward 
appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart, he 
said, ‘Men are like bananas. You choose what 
you think is the best one in the bunch. It has a 
clean skin. It appears to be good—very good— 
but when you look inside it you find a rotten 
patch. And God often finds in our hearts 
a “rotten” patch. If our lives are to be 
right in His sight we must not only appear. 
to be good, we must be good.’. In the 
same sermon Daniel went on to _ Say, 
“Most of us to-day are dressed in the same 
manner. We all have white loin-cloths. Our hair 
is well oiled and well combed up. In outward 
appearance we are the same. But do not forget 
that while man looketh on the outside, God - 
looketh on the heart.’ 

On another occasion his sermon was concluded 
in the following words:— Some of you say that 
you believe the Lotu (Gospel Message), but that 
you are just the same as before. Do you want 
to know why? I will tell you. It is because 
you do not truly believe at all. Listen! You 
make a canoe. You say you believe it will carry 
your weight and that it is sea-worthy. But if 
you leave your new canoe in its house and 
never put it to the test, you do not believe in it. 
If you truly believe in your canoe, you will step — 


PREACHING AND TRANSLATION 69 


into it, and you will push out from the shore 
and go out into the deep sea. You will trust 
your life to it. Only then will you truly believe 
in it. So with the Lotu Message. To say you 
believe in it is not enough. You must trust it. 
Just as you trust your canoe when you go a 
journey in it, so you must put your trust in the 
Lotu by beginning to travel on the new way. As 
soon as you begin your journey in the way that 
Jesus has prepared for us you are trusting Him, 
and then, and only then, will you find that He is 
able to help you, and strengthen you, and keep 
you on the new pathway that leads to the Great 
Father.’ | 

As a preacher Daniel possessed not only the 
cift of a ready tongue, but also the quiet inten- 
sity of a magnetic personality. He developed 
into a clear, original thinker. For ten years his 
sermons made a distinct contribution to the reli- 
gious life of his people. At the outset of this 
training he was given sermon outlines, and was 
encouraged to melt these in the crucible of his 
own reflections, and to stamp them with his own 
individuality. This proved a good method, for he 
soon showed facility in assimilating spiritual 
truths. In later years his sermons were com- 
pletely the product of his own thought. The fol- 
lowing is a rough outline of one of them :— 


70 THE SON OF A SAVAGE 


Mark i. 13: ‘Tempted of Satan.’—These words 
are the root of my message. They were spoken 
about the Son of God, the Saviour of all men. 
His name is Jisu Karisito (Jesus Christ). Al- 
though He is the Son of the Great God, He was 
born a baby and became a man. God permitted 
Him to suffer and to be tempted as a man, be- 
cause He wanted us to know that He understood 
all about our life and temptations, and that He 
was willing to give us His strength to defeat the 
devil. After He was baptized, but before He 
began His works of wonder, Satan came and 
tempted Him. Jesus did not listen to the 
tempter. He said to him,—' Get behind Me; get 
out of My way; begone!’ And that is what we — 
must say when the evil one tempts us. Begone! 
Begone! BEGONE!! Satan is busy all the days 
of our lives, and he it is that puts bad thoughts 
into our minds. If we cast out these bad thoughts 
we are all right, but if we hold to them we are 
all wrong. Temptation is like fever. It shows 
us our weakness. Fever reveals the weak place 
in our bodies, and temptation reveals the weak 
place in our hearts. You all know that fever 
gives to one man an ear-ache; to another an eye- 
ache; to another a headache; and to another a 


The word used was the same as the one used in scaring 
away a village dog. 


PREACHING AND TRANSLATION 71 


stomach-ache. It is true, fever reveals to us our 
bodily weaknesses. And temptation is like that; 
it reveals to us the particular weakness in our 
hearts. To one man it is the desire to kill; to 
another, lying; to another, covetousness; to 
another, bad temper. This is because our hearts 
are not the same. Temptation tells us whether 
we are near to God or far away from Him. If 
we are always wanting to do wrong, we know 
we are living far from God. If we are always 
trying to do right, we know that we are living 
near to God. The nearer we get to God, the 
further we get away from temptation. But 
temptation is not a bad thing. It is a good 
thing. It is a good thing for testing us. It is 
like the rough sea. Just as you test your canoe 
in a rough sea, so you test your Lotu (Christian) 
life in temptation. You cannot call your new 
canoe a strong one until it has been tested in a 
rough sea; and you cannot call your new life in 
Christ a strong one until it has been tested in 
temptation. To be overcome by temptation is 
like having your canoe swamped with the waves. 
A little black boy not long ago was overcome by 
temptation. I will tell you about him. I went 
the other day to the store of Nikolo. Just as I 
was entering, I saw a little black arm dipping 
down into a big biscuit tin. Then I saw the same 


72 THE SON OF A SAVAGE 


little black arm pulled out of the tin, but there 
was a biscuit in the hand. When I saw the 
biscuit I called in a ‘ hard’ voice, ‘ What are you 
doing there?’ Do you know what the owner 
of the little black arm did? He quickly put the 
biscuit to his mouth and gave it two big licks! 
‘Why did you do that?’ I asked. ‘Because I 
thought if I licked it you would let me keep it, 
was his reply. Now this boy hurt his soul be- 
cause he gave way to temptation. I want to 
tell you to-day that the only way to resist 
temptation is to take Jesus into your hearts. 
What do we do when we take a long voyage in 
a rough sea? We seek the best steersman. 
Because the journey of life is often long and 
rough, and Satan is ever seeking to set us on the 
rocks, let us all take Jesus for our Steersman. He 
alone can guide us safely past every temptation 
and bring us to our Great Father’s Home. 
During all these years Daniel was busily en- 
gaged with me on translation work. Having the 
fullest confidence in the permanence of Christian © 
teaching amongst savage people who are taught 
to read God’s Word in their own tongue, I was 
bound by the most solemn motive of my life to 
give the closest attention to the work of getting 
a Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ printed in the 
vernacular. I felt this undertaking to be not — 





Proto E. A. Salisbury. 
LHe EXPRESS? 





Photo E. A.-Salisbury. 


A GLIMPSE OF VELLA LAVELLA. 


daneyes ak, Map: 


Laga 


4 


LLA LAVE 


4 
4 


VI 


2) 
sa) 


op: 
, 

— 
eS 
~ 
‘aR 
om] 





PREACHING AND TRANSLATION 73 


only worth while, but morally imperative. So 
Daniel early came to look upon language study 
as one of the most important duties of each day. 
He proved himself possessed of a distinct literary 
turn of mind. Looking back over the years, I 
do not know one Vella Lavellan student who 
showed such aptitude in the acquisition of 
languages as did Daniel. Besides speaking 
fluently no less than five of the Solomon Islands’ 
languages, he quickly acquired a good general 
knowledge of simple but correct English. It 
seemed as though God who giveth understanding 
had concentrated in him all those qualities of 
mind and heart that were necessary for this par- 
ticular task. 

Like all other races in the South Seas Daniel’s 
people had no method of conveying thought 
other than word of mouth. The work of 
reducing their speech to a written form was not 
an easy undertaking, for the reason that it had 
nothing in common with the Melanesian and 
Polynesian languages, in which there are many 
books of reference. Mr. S. H. Ray, of London, 
who is regarded as the greatest authority on 
Oceanic Languages, writing on the Vella Lavella 
language, made the following statement: ‘To 
any one acquainted with the comparatively 
simple forms of Melanesian languages the diffi- 


74 THE SON OF A SAVAGE 


culty of the Vella Lavellan language seems 
enormous. . .. The extraordinary character of 
the language is seen in the grammar.”! 

The learning of the language had to be done, 
of course, wholly from conversation. Toiling at 
the grammatical construction was tedious work, 
but Daniel was always ready for it. He would 
discuss the significance of words until I, too, was 
almost black in the face. Often it was necessary 
to spend hours and even days over a single word 
or phrase in order to find the exact shade of 
meaning, and to put it into an equivalent native 
idiom. : 

Other things being equal, nothing hampers a 
missionary more than imperfect idioms and 
inaccurate pronunciations. The nearer he 
approaches to the language of the natives, the 
deeper and more persuasive will be the spiritual 
influence he exerts. A misplaced vowel often 
makes an entirely different meaning. A personal 
experience at Roviana will illustrate what I mean. 
I had been preaching about there being two. 
classes of men in the world; good men and bad 
men. I intended to convey that it mattered not 
whether we were white men or black men, we 
were all either good or bad in the sight of God. 


1See article ‘A New Linguistic Family” in The Bible in 
the World, October, 1919. 


PREACHING AND TRANSLATION 75 


After the service was over, however, I was told 
that I had preached about stomachs! I had been 
careless in my pronunciation, and had used the 
word ‘ tia,’ which means stomach, instead of the 
word ‘tie, which means man. My address 
amounted to a twenty minutes’ sermon on 
stomachs! 

The Vella Lavellan language is rich in concrete 
terms. For example, there are many words for 
the one English word ‘ open.’ To open a coconut, 
an eye, a box, a door, different words are used in 
each instance. In the early days Daniel was 
constantly correcting me in these matters. Once 
I thought I had told the people to open their 
eyes, but in error I used the word for opening 
coconuts! The many equivalents for our one 
word ‘Break’ also greatly puzzled me. When 
speaking of breaking yam, or taro, or other food, 
a word is used that is quite different from that 
which is used when speaking of breaking a stone. 
To speak of breaking a creeper there is another 
word, for breaking a limb there is yet another, 
and so on. It will be seen, therefore, that it was 
only after extreme labour and care and patience 
on Daniel’s part that I was able to use words 
without creating misunderstandings. 

It would be a mistake for any one to assume 
that the language of the Vella Lavellans is a 


76 THE SON OF A SAVAGE 


poor one. Like many another South Sea Island 
language it is our knowledge that is poor—not 
the language. I shall never forget the day 
Daniel heard for the first time the finished trans- 
lation of the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, so 
strongly did it appeal to his spiritual nature 
that he broke down completely. The Vella 
Lavellan tongue is certainly adequate for the 
expression of the finer feelings. 

While all this is true, we found it necessary 
to broaden and enrich the meaning of several of 
the old heathen terms rather than to introduce 
English words. For example, a name for God 
gave us much thought. In Chapter III it has 
been pointed out that the people believe in a 
Great Spirit whom they call ‘ Banara.’ This term 
conveyed no idea of filial relationship. The 
Banara was merely the First Cause. We have 
taken this word, and added to its original mean- 
ing the idea of a loving Fatherhood. So to-day 
the God of the Christian and the Banara of the 
Vella Lavellan is one and the same. The 
people know Him as their loving Heavenly 
Father, and as the loving Heavenly Father of 
all peoples of all places. In this manner we have 
given a number of native terms a richer méan- 
ing, so that a gradual transformation has been 
effected such as took place in many Greek words 





Photo R. C. Nicholson. 


DANIEL AND TWO OF HIS BOYS. 


face p. 76 





Photo T. Humphrey & Co., Melb. 
DANIEL AND ALEX, 


PREACHING AND TRANSLATION 77 


when they came to be used for the purpose of 
expressing Christian thought and experience at 
the beginning of the Christian era. 

To-day the people of Vella Lavella are the 
happy possessors of a Hymnal, the Catechism, 
the Lord’s Prayer, the Apostles’ Creed, portions 
of Old and New ‘Testament Scripture, the 
Baptismal, Marriage, Burial and Sacramental 
Services, as well as the Gospel according to St. 
Mark. Their unfeigned delight at having this 
Story of Christ’s Life in the language wherein 
they were born, convinced us that they regarded 
it as the biggest boon ever conferred upon them. 
And its influence on the character of the Vella 
Lavellans cannot be over-estimated. Through 
the reading of it they have come into a closer 
fellowship with Jesus Christ. It is the deepest 
and strongest force for righteousness of the 
island. It does more than teaching, more than 
preaching, more than organization. The people 
read of Christ in the language of daily speech, 
and their faith and life in Him are vitalized 
thereby. In this printed Gospel the Son of Man 
speaks directly to their hearts, and they are very 
conscious of it. In commenting upon this trans- 
lation in the article already referred to, Mr. Ray 
congratulated us upon ‘ the very successful study 
of an exceedingly difficult subject.’ Mention is 


78 THE SON OF A SAVAGE 


made of this criticism because it reflects credit on 
Daniel’s discrimination. We were dealing with 
his own mother-tongue, and he knew its shades 
of meaning in a way that often completely 
baffled me. He was never satisfied with any- 
thing less than the exact native idiom. Without 
his perseverance and faithfulness accurate work 
would have been impossible. | 


CHAPTER VIII 


In the White Man’s Land 


AT the end of the year 1916, Daniel, with his 
friend Alex, accompanied me to Australia. Alex 
was one of the first six to be baptized. Through- 
out all the years he had been a loyal and devoted 
lad. He was a born mechanic, and was the 
engineer of my Mission launch. So capable was 
he in the general management and care of a boat 
that he was once offered a white man’s salary 
to take charge of an auxiliary trading vessel. He 
turned down the offer with the remark that he 
wanted to work for the Mission which had done 
so much for him. 

I had long promised both boys a trip to my 
own country, for they had well deserved it. We 
arrived in Sydney at night. As we approached 
Sydney Heads the lights along the shore shone 
out their welcome. To me they signified much. 
Amongst other things I could see in my mind’s 
eye the life and bustle of a great city—tall build- 
ings, streets ablaze with electric lights, the rush 
of people, the roar and clatter of trams, clanging 


of bells, brilliant shop windows and swiftly 
79 


80 THE SON OF A SAVAGE 


moving motors—I could see and hear it all. But 
for the boys straight from their primitive life in 
the Solomons there was no such mental picture. 
Leaning over the steamer’s railing Daniel said, 
‘Nikolo, there must be a lot of your people 
fishing on the reefs to-night!’ This was the only 
impression the lights of Sydney seen from the 
deck of the incoming steamer could convey to his 
mind. Truly everything goes by comparison. 
The next morning we went ashore. As soon . 
as convenient we visited the clock-tower of the 
General Post Office. After looking down from 
its giddy height upon the busy streets of Sydney, 
Daniel remarked that the people made him think 
of a disturbed ant’s nest. ‘ What are they rush- 
ing about for?’ he inquired. ‘ Attending to 
their own work,’ I replied. ‘ Playing’ was Dan’s . 
comment—and we all laughed. Later in the day 
I had occasion to enter a shop in George Street. 
The boys and a friend decided to wait outside. 
I could not have been absent more than a few 
minutes, but on coming out I found a great crowd 
of curious people congregating around my three 
friends. All were stretching their necks to get a 
glimpse of the Solomon Islanders; their fuzzy hair 
and shining black faces were a great attraction. 
A traffic obstruction was imminent, and I arrived 
on the scene just in time to prevent the police 





CGHUMS! Photo R. C. Nicholson. 


face p. 90. 











Photo R. C. Nicholson. 
DANIEL AND BABY BURTON, 1917: 


face p. 81. 


IN THE WHITE MAN’S LAND 81 


order to ‘move on.’ Though my friend looked 
absolutely unconcerned, I do not think he quite 
enjoyed the experience. Dan and Alex took it 
all in good part, and managed to hide their 
blushes of embarrassment. The journey across 
to Melbourne in the ‘ bush-steamer’ (train) was 
full of interest. The boys said they wanted eyes 
both sides of their heads so that they might see 
everything. 

A few weeks after our arrival in Australia 
Daniel spoke at the Annual Foreign Missionary 
Demonstration of the Methodist Church at the 
Melbourne Town Hall. The great building was 
crowded to the doors, and he received a remark- 
able ovation. The following are a few extracts 
from his speech, which was delivered in the 
vernacular :— 

* My chiefs and my friends,—I am glad to stand 
_ here to-day. This is the first time I have looked 
into your faces. I am amazed at the bigness of 
this assembly. Your moving heads make me 
think of the sea. My people are many, but I 
have never stood before them in this manner. 
At no time and in no place have I seen so many 
people, and I am just a little bit shy. These days 
are difficult days—the days of the Great War— 
but your work and the good work of your Chris- 
tian people still comes to my country. I am 

6 


82 THE SON OF A SAVAGE 


reminded of the wind. We cannot see the wind; 
it is the work of the wind that we see. So, in 
like manner, though my people do not see you, 
they see the work of your lives. When I return 
to my own country I shall tell them about you. 
True it is that I was once evil and useless. You 
have seen a dirty piece of wood in the bush. 
Well, I was like that when Nikolo found me and 
“adzed” me. Do you want to know why I have 
been adzed? You yourselves adze timber in 
order to make something that will be of use—a 
table, a chair, or a house. So with me. Nikolo 
adzed me in order that I might be of use in the 
Kingdom of God. Now I am able to tell you 
that the love of my people for your people, and 
the love of your people for my people, are like 
branches of the one tree, and the root of that tree 
is God Himself. To-day your God is my God, : 
‘and your people are my people. I may not look 
upon your faces again, but I hope we shall all 
meet in the Kingdom of God. My statement is 
ended.’ 

This great gathering was followed by others. 
I well remember one in particular because it was 
the first time Daniel had been asked to sing. The 
church was crowded. The promises of financial 
help constituted a record. Just before the close 
of the meeting a gentleman rose in his seat and 


IN THE WHITE MAN’S LAND — 83 


said, ‘The young people would like to hear 
Daniel sing.” This remark was received with 
enthusiastic applause. Knowing that Daniel had 
scarcely got his bearings and that he was ex- 
tremely sensitive, I did not care to press him in 
the matter. ‘What about singing, Dan?’ I 
asked. His reply was a quiet but definite ‘ No.’ 
The friends, however, would not be denied. — 
Daniel and I carried on a whispered conversa- 
tion. He insisted that he was not a singer. The 
audience waited in silent expectation. At last in 
desperation I said, ‘ Come on Dan, Pll help you.’ 
‘Very well,’ he answered, ‘Tl sing by myself.’ 
When I passed on Daniel’s words to the audience 
they laughed heartily. Evidently he knew my 


limitations better than I did myself. He sang :— 


Ene ta lula utu talio 
Vana vasi; 
Melai Jesu No ta kue koi tu 
Zolenela : 
Ni No ta bazue nela ene 
Tadate, tu kea Au ko araro. 


Light of the world, faint were our weary feet 
With wandering far; 

But Thou didst come our lonely hearts to greet, 
O Morning Star. 

And Thou didst bid us lift our gaze on high, 

To see the glory of the glowing sky. 


When he finished this beautiful hymn a solemn 
stillness pervaded the whole meeting. Retiring 
to rest that night, I congratulated him on his 


84 THE SON OF A SAVAGE 


singing. He was very sensitive about the matter, 
and asked me not to urge him to sing again. 
‘But, Dan,’ I said, ‘ You sang well. To many 
people your singing would be the most helpful 
part of the meeting.’ Rr A. 

It was very clear to me, however, that he 
really would rather not sing. This was a big 
disappointment, for his singing had made a re- 
markable impression, and I knew that if he were 
able to sing at our meetings a still greater 
interest in him and in his people would be created. 
But I did not care to place upon him any extra 
nervous strain, so decided not to urge him 
further; and in telling him this, I added that I 
wanted him to know that his singing was a great 
success, and that he touched every heart. ‘ All 
right, Tanala,’ he said, ‘I will sing if it does good.’ 
Never again was there any difficulty in getting 
Daniel to respond to a request from the audience 
for a solo. 

A month or two after this incident Daniel 
accompanied me on a ten weeks’ lecturing tour 
throughout New Zealand as Foreign Mission 
Deputation. On arrival we found that the Presi- 
dent of the Conference had given the Church the 
motto ‘Spiritual Advance,’ and that the Con- 
ference itself had endorsed the proposal of one 
of its prominent laymen for ‘ Missionary 


IN THE WHITE MAN’S LAND 85 


Advance.’ To state the case in concrete terms, 
the Conference actually challenged the Church to 
raise its contributions to Foreign Missions from 
£5,000 to £10,000. The layman who brought the 
proposition before the Church had promised to 
donate £500 to the Foreign Mission Funds if the 
amount were raised. So it was in an atmosphere 
warm, expectant, and spiritual that we began the 
itinerary at Invercargill on May 6, 1917. That 
year the people of the Dominion promoted the 
Foreign Missionary Meetings to the dignity and 
enthusiasm of a Church Anniversary. Daniel’s 
visit was not merely announced, it was boomed. 
In many of the towns large calico signs adver- 
tising the meetings were set up in central places. 
Country circuits posted circulars. Practically 
every place was prepared by prayer and organiza- 
tion. It was both an inspiration and a delight to 
find full churches and to know that ministers and 
laymen had unitedly determined to make the 
Missionary Meetings the biggest and best in the 
history of the Church. Because enthusiasm is 
a positive power, the meetings from the first to 
the final were marked by generous giving and a 
new sense of stewardship. It is worth recording 
that the friend of Foreign Missions who had 
promised £500 on condition that £10,000 was 
raised was so delighted with the magnificent 


86 THE SON OF A SAVAGE 


response of the smaller circuits that he sent his 
promised cheque for £500 direct to the Mission 
Office—withdrawing all conditions. Then a 
second gift of £500 was received, and scores of 
subscribers who had once contented themselves 
with giving 10s. in a casual way, joyously 
promised £10 a year. As an illustration of the 
way Daniel’s presence stirred the hearts of the 
young folk, the following quotation is given from 
a college girl’s letter to her father:— 

‘I don’t want any birthday presents, only 
could I have some money out of the Bank to 
give Daniel for the other black boys. I think 
there are £4 leit in. Would that be enough?’ 

And so New Zealand became a land of new zeal 
for Foreign Missions. She smashed her long- 
range target of £10,000, and immediately set up 
another in the form of £15,000. And she has 
never turned back to the old standard of giving. 
It was the same in Australia. One circuit lifted 
its contribution from £8 to £103; another from 
£30 to £120; another from £48 to £250; an- 
other from £55 to £300; another from £294 to 
£735. Scores of letters expressing appreciation 
of Daniel’s work were received by the writer 
from every State visited. 

Daniel’s visit to the white man’s country en- 
abled him to take a more intelligent place in the 


IN THE WHITE MAN’S LAND _ 87 


larger life of mankind. It was for him a great 
education. Possessed of fine powers of observa- 
tion, he was always learning. Everybody seemed 
anxious to impart information to him. He saw 
the working of shipyards and foundries; flour, 
woollen and paper-mills; meat and fruit pre- 
serving works; also the manufacture of bread, 
biscuits, confectionery, bottles, rugs, furniture, 
and pottery. He saw the operation of practically 
all our principal industries; visited our hospitals, 
orphanages, asylums, and gaols. To learn that 
any person who meets with a street accident is 
immediately carried off to the hospital and 
treated without charge was a revelation to him. 
The knowledge that the blind, deaf, dumb, and 
homeless are all cared for by the Government 
gave him a keen appreciation of the advantages 
of a Christian country. The beautification of our 
roadways and cities also made a strong appeal 
to him. He was a child of Nature, and greatly 
loved our gardens and our flowers. 

Daniel’s experiences were many and varied. 
One of the earliest was shared by his friend 
Alex. I took them to a first-class city photo- 
grapher to have their portraits taken in native 
regalia. They entered the reception-room 
clothed in keeping with our social requirements 
—loin-cloth, shirt, neck-tie, coat, etc. A young 


88 THE SON OF A SAVAGE 


lady wrote their names in a book, directed us to 
a dressing-room, and told us to go into the studio 
as soon as we were ready. The boys disrobed 
themselves of all European apparel, put on their 
native attire, and then marched with me into the 
studio. In a few moments a door opened, and in 
walked the fair-haired young lady of the recep- 
tion room. Suddenly she noticed Dan and Alex. 
She gave one blood-curdling shriek and fled. We 
never saw her again! 

But Daniel’s experiences were not all of so 
negative a nature. One of his big ventures was 
the climbing of Mt. Egmont in the middle of 
winter. He did not get to the summit, but that 
was not his fault. Bare-footed he tramped across 
gullies in which drifts of snow were forty feet 
deep. Soon after this he was enjoying the hot- 
springs of Rotorua; swimming in the thermal 
waters of the Blue Bath and the Duchess was a 
treat to be long remembered. The launching 
of the Australian-built cruiser Adelaide, a descent 
into one of the deepest of Bendigo’s gold mines, 
a walk of one mile through a coal mine in New- 
castle, a visit to the Jenolan Caves of New South 
Wales, the salmon hatcheries of New Zealand, 
and the Melbourne Mint, were all outstanding 
experiences, and received honourable mention on 
his return to Vella Lavella. 





Photo Frank Denton, Wangania, N.Z. 


DANIEL AND ‘ NIKOLO.’ 


face p. &8 





Photo A. A. Bensley. 


DANIEL’S ORPHANAGE. 





Photo E. A. Salisbury. 


SAGO PALMS. 
The leaves are used for thatching. | 
face p. 89 


IN THE WHITE MAN’S LAND — 89 


But I think he himself regarded the day spent 
in the operating-theatre of the Melbourne 
General Hospital as the biggest event of all. I 
arranged for him to see one major operation and 
he made a day of it. After seeing him quite 
settled in the theatre I left to make a few calls in 
the city. On my return an hour later I found 
him enjoying morning coffee with the medical 
students—to use his own words, he had had ‘A 
good time.’ When we left for lunch I asked, 
‘What would you like to see this afternoon? 
Where would you like to go?’ ‘I’m going back 
to the hospital,’ was Daniel’s reply. I explained 
that he could not go again without another 
invitation, but hé assured me that that part of it 
was all fixed up. He had been advised to come 
back early and to stay the whole afternoon, as 
there would be some ‘ good things on.’ He went 
—and was tremendously impressed. An amputa- 
tion, three appendical operations, and _ the 
removal of a large growth were among the ‘ good 
things’ witnessed. The methods of modern 
surgery astounded him. ‘ Nikolo,’ he said to me 
one day, ‘ There is one thing I would like to be 
in my own country.’ ‘What’s that?’ I asked. 
‘Move kale ama Dokita’ (A Doctor of the Knife) 
was his reply. Daniel longed to be able to do the 
same work of healing for his own people. Of all 


90 THE SON OF A SAVAGE 


the wonderful things he saw in Australia and 
New Zealand, nothing so appealed to him as 
did the work of the surgeons at the Melbourne 
Hospital. He comprehended it. 

Again and again my friends said to me, * Will 
you please ask Daniel to tell us what he thinks 
of our civilization, our cities, our steamers, our 
trains and telephones, telegraphs and wireless, 
cinemas and aeroplanes and all the other wonders 
of modern life. We should like to have his 
Opinion about us.’ Scores of times I have put 
questions on these lines to Daniel, and he made 
it clear to me that the complexity of our life was 
completely beyond his comprehension. Once he 
answered something like this: “I am always 
amazed at the thousands of your people and the 
thousands of your houses. I did not think so 
many people could live in one place. You are 
as plentiful as the trees in the jungle. I see the 
wonderful things you have made, but I cannot 
measure up the workings of them. I say to my- 
self, it is the way of the white man. He is never 
satisfied. He seeks, seeks, seeks—and he finds, 
finds, finds.’ This is as far as Daniel ever went 
in the way of an opinion about us. He accepted 
the different conditions of life as belonging to a 
different type of mankind. 

After a year’s lecturing tour throughout New 


IN THE WHITE MAN’S LAND 91 


Zealand and Australia, Daniel was again chosen 
as one of the speakers for the Annual Foreign 
Missionary Demonstration in the Melbourne 
Town Hall. He faced the great gathering with 
the utmost confidence. On this occasion his ad- 
dress was a powerful utterance, and gripped the 
audience from beginning to end. Speaking in 
the vernacular he said: 

‘My chiefs and my friends,—I am glad to 
look into your faces again. We meet as one 
family. We are a portion of the great family of 
God. He is the loving Father of us all. In days 
gone by, my people could not gather together 
as we are gathered here to-night. True, we did 
gather together; but it was to plan to kill. Of 
love we knew nothing. If we did not arrange 
to go to a distant place to fight, we fought 
amongst ourselves. We were stupid. Our gather- 
ings ended in quarrellings, fightings, and death. 
How different from your country! Here in this 
land you come together from great distances, yet 
you can be friendly, and not only friendly, you 
are truly friends. I am not blind. I see that you 
love one another. I want to say that I have 
had a good time amongst you. I have been 
to Sydney, to New Zealand, to South Australia, 
to Queensland, to Tasmania, and now I am in 
Melbourne again. Your country is truly a great 


92 THE SON OF A SAVAGE 


country. Why is it great? Is it because you 
have many steamers of the sea and steamers of 
the bush (trains); or because you have much 
money and big houses? No. It is because you 
have full knowledge of the Gospel Message. I 
do not covet your money, or your houses, or your 
lands but I do covet your Lotu (Gospel 
Message). It is the Lotu that has made your 
country a great country. You have been very 
good to me. You have opened your hearts as 
well as your homes to me. I do not forget 
your goodness, but I want to tell you that there 
are times when I have been angry in my heart 
in this country. Listen. Once my master 
Nikolo was angry with us for having too many 
lamps burning in one room. He told us we were 
wasting kerosene. So I say to you that you have 
too many ministers and too many churches in 
one village; you are wasting the Light of the 
Gospel. I do not say to you to give up using 
any of your ministers, but what I do say is this,— 
send more of them to the dark places. Thousands 
of people on great islands not far from my home 
are living in darkness, and you could give them 
light. Boys and girls are growing up without the 
knowledge of Jesus Christ, and old people ‘are 
dying in that condition because there are not 
enough teachers to reveal to them the love of 


IN THE WHITE MAN’S LAND 93 


God. Give to us more missionaries. Again I 
say, give to us more missionaries. You have so 
many in this country. Can you not spare us a 
few more? How can my people go straight 
without guidance? They are as little children, 
and need to be taken by the hand and led along 
the pathway to the Great Father. And they are 
waiting, and waiting, and waiting. 

‘Another thing. I want to tell you that as I 
vo from place to place in your country I see many 
things. I see the streets of your big cities on 
dark nights made as bright as day by many 
lamps. I see the light of one lamp meet the 
light of the second, and the light of the second 
meet the light of the third, and so on until the 
whole street is full of light and there is no dark- 
ness at all. Let the time come quickly when 
there will be so many missionaries in my country 
that the light of one Mission Station will reach 
the light of the next, and the light of that to 
another, and another, and another, until the 
whole of the Solomons are flooded with the light 
of the Gospel. | 

“One thing more. I may not look into your 
faces again. Let us meet together in the King- 
dom of God. There we will not be called white 
men and black men. We will all be children of 
the Great Father. 


94 THE SON OF A SAVAGE 


‘Pray for my people. My statement is 
finished.’ | 


On his return to his own country Daniel never 
ceased to speak of the hearty hospitality he en- 
joyed throughout New Zealand and Australia. 
In sermons and class-meetings, as well as in 
private conversation, he was always ready to 
bear testimony to the wonderful kindness of the 
Christian people in the White Man’s Land. This _ 
was the mountain-peak of his experiences; it 
stood out solitary and supreme, o’ertopping all 
else. In very truth, without a single exception, 
our people did their best to give him a gp0G 
time. And he never forgot it. 

In summing up Daniel’s visit it is not too much 
to say that he made a profound spiritual impres- . 
sion wherever he went. His presence and 
powerful addresses at hundreds of Missionary 
Meetings throughout New Zealand and Aus- 
tralia helped Christian people to realize in fuller 
measure their responsibility to the heathen. 
Theirs was the privilege of coming into personal 
contact with a living product of the latest Mission 
Field in the South Seas, and it undoubtedly 
deepened their faith in God and in humanity. 
‘ They saw the healed man in their midst and they 
could say nothing against it.’ 


CHAPTER IX 


Some. Incidents 


ON Daniel’s return to Vella Lavella from 
Australia it became necessary for him to build a 
large house for the accommodation of his waifs 
and strays. During his visit to the white man’s 
land he saw houses that had been erected in one 
day. The method of gathering and preparing all 
materials before commencing building operations 
strongly appealed to him. He decided to adopt 
this method in connexion with the erection of his 
own house, so that his people might have an 
object-lesson in rapid house construction. 

First of all, arrangements were made with his 
friends around the island to prepare every kind 
of building material. At one village where bam-° 
boo is plentiful they agreed to collect the needed 
bamboo. Another village reported that they 
would be responsible for the leaf required for 
thatching. Still another decided to prepare a 
certain creeper for binding purposes and so on. 
When all the materials were ready, Daniel com- 
missioned his brother’s cutter in order to collect 


them. An army of willing workers then began 
95 


96 THE SON OF A SAVAGE 


on the building. Daniel divided his workmen 
into teams, and in a very short time there was a 
fine two-storied house standing complete. 

An incident occurred in connexion with the 
gathering of the materials which might have 
ended tragically. Several successful trips had 
been made, when one day the cutter, with five 
of our best boat boys, was caught in a terrific 
squall and capsized. Being several miles from 
land, the boys were in a perilous position. For- . 
tunately they had a dinghy; but it was little 
more than a wooden tub, and not nearly large 
enough to carry the whole crew. Although the 
sea was lashed to fury and the sky looked 
ominous, it was agreed that two of the crew 
should take the dinghy and make an attempt to 
reach the land. Six hours later they arrived at . 
the Mission Station utterly exhausted, and re- 
ported to my wife that their cutter had capsized, 
and that miles away from the shore, out in the 
blinding storm somewhere, the other three boys 
were clinging to the drifting boat. I was 
away at Gizo that day with the launch. 
Marama,' however, lost no time in sending 
relief. T'wo canoes were dispatched immediately. 
Daniel took charge of one and went straight to 
the ship-wrecked lads; the other was sent to me 

My wife. 


SOME INCIDENTS 97 


with a message from Marama. I was sixteen 
miles away, but the canoe covered the distance 
in record time and reached us just at sundown. 
Ten minutes later we were aboard the launch, 
racing at top speed to the rescue. I was a good 
deal concerned about the safety of our lads, for 
I knew Daniel would make every effort to save 
the cutter, and that working in the water at 
night was highly dangerous. (The last time a 
boat of Bilua boys had capsized off the coast, 
six of the crew of eight were taken by sharks.) 
Our progress seemed painfully slow. We had 
to make our way through a veritable labyrinth 
of reefs and coral islets before reaching the cpen 
water, and by this time darkness had set in. 
When Daniel reached the capsized cutter the 
three boys had been in the water for nine hours! 
He decided to send them at once to the Mission 
Station in his canoe and stay himself with the 
cutter. Most natives, under similar circum- 
stances, would have been satisfied with saving 
the crew and would have abandoned the wreck. 
Not so Daniel. He determined to save his 
brother’s craft even at the risk of his life. Seven 
of his crew insisted on staying with him. For 
some hours they toiled at the cutter, and with 
great difficulty managed to dismantle her and 
turn her right side up. It was impossible to bale 
7 


98 THE SON OF A SAVAGE 


the water out of her. They were miles from 
land, with no alternative but to wait for me to 
find them—out there in the dark with their 
water-logged cutter. 

Marama surmised that Daniel would not leave 
the cutter when daylight failed, so she had sent 
him, in addition to food, lanterns, and matches. 
When the canoe reached the wreck with these 
things, Daniel reminded his mates that they had 
an opportunity now to return to the Mission » 
Station. Not one of them would go. Even the 
crew of the relief-canoe decided to remain with 
him in his effort to save the boat. It was a 
black night. They were in great danger. They 
knew we were on our way to their rescue— 
but would we find them? 

Meanwhile we were travelling in the launch - 
at top speed in the direction given to us by the 
messengers. In due time we covered the 
distance; but there was not a sign of the wreck 
or the boys. After a long and fruitless search in 
the vicinity, we came to the conclusion that a 
strong tide had caught them and carried them 
perhaps miles away. We decided to run with the 
tide; on and on we went, calling our loudest and 
zigzagging our way for mile after mile» We 
were beginning to despair of ever finding them, 
when suddenly, with intense excitement, some- 


SOME INCIDENTS 99 


one said, ‘ A light.’ Soon we were all saying, ‘ No. 
Yes. No. Yes!’ At first we thought it was a 
fire on a small island. Then we began to wave 
the launch lantern. A tiny flicker of light away 
in the darkness moved to and fro, to and fro. 
‘Look! look!’ we cried in unison. ‘ There they 
are. They have a light. They answer.’ We 
were greatly excited. The launch crew began 
to hug each other in sheer relief. Marama’s 
forethought in sending out the lanterns had 
meant their salvation. It was after midnight; 
but the search was over. We actually found the 
cutter nearly twenty miles south of the position 
reported to us. It was being carried right past 
the last of the islands out into the open sea. 
Daniel and his boys were shivering with cold, 
and were thoroughly played out. They had been 
in the water for seven hours; nearly as long as 
the first three lads! We were soon homeward 
bound with the cutter in tow. Her water-logged 
condition made the task of towing her slow and 
difficult; but the engine of the launch worked 
perfectly, and at last we saw the welcome light 
of the Mission House, which had been placed in 
a prominent position. We arrived home about 
three o’clock in the morning of the next day, and 
everybody was down on the wharf to welcome us 
—even the little children were there. 


100 THE SON OF A SAVAGE 


I can recall every detail of the experience. 
The black night; the few flickering lanterns; the 
weird sighing of the palms along the shore; the 
roar of the seas on the outer reef; the one white 
lady with a hundred or more of our Mission folk 
waiting on the wharf; my shout‘ All’s well’ as 
we drew near; the singing of the Doxology after 
we had stepped ashore; the excited questionings 
as we walked up the hill to the Mission House; 
the buckets of hot tea in the kitchen for the © 
chilled boys; the relief of my dear wife, who 
had had to radiate good cheer among the 
mothers, wives, and sweethearts throughout a 
long and terrible day, and a still longer and more 
trying night. These details are indelibly im- 
printed on my mind. I can never forget them. © 

Once on a dark, moonless night, as we were ~ 
making our way home in the launch, the engine 
suddenly began to ‘race.’ I thought the clutch 
had slipped. But no, we had Jost our propeller! 
There was not a breath of wind, and so our sail 
was useless. It happened that we were near an 
island; but to our dismay we soon noticed that 
the tide was sweeping us round the corner of it, 
and that in a few minutes we would be out in 
the open water. We had no dinghy and no oars. 
something had to be done at once. At first we 
tried to get ashore by paddling with a few boards 


SOME INCIDENTS 101 


which we ripped up from the deck, but the tide 
was too strong for us. We were slowly but 
surely being carried past the island, and after 
that there was nothing but the boundless sea. 
It was a desperate predicament. I started to 
take off my boots. The next moment there was 
a shout and a splash—Daniel had jumped over- 
board into the inky, shark-infested sea. He 
called to us to pass him the _ tow-rope. 
His sudden plucky act so inspired the other boys 
that they followed his lead and were soon in the 
water helping him to tow the launch to the shore. 
After a long and strenuous struggle success 
crowned our efforts, and we were able to let go 
the anchor on the reef. MDaniel’s action was 
characteristic, and gave to us further proof of his 
fearlessness and influence over his fellows. 
Other incidents come to my mind. I had long 
intended to climb the highest peak of Vella 
Lavella, and the visit of a friend in 1921 gave me 
an excuse for a day off. My guest and I, with 
Daniel, left the Mission Station in the small hours 
and commenced to climb about 5 a.m. The ascent 
proved unexpectedly awkward, and in places was 
decidedly dangerous. Our progress was so slow 
that we appeared to have little chance of doing 
the climb while daylight held. However, we 
stuck to it and reached the summit somehow. 


102 THE SON OF A SAVAGE 


Although desperately weary, we had to start 
back immediately. The descent was a torture 
to our tired bodies, and we fell frequently. Dark- 
ness found us in the heart of the jungle. For- 
tunately the village people living at the foot of 
the mountain judged that we would be late in 
returning, so sent a number of young men with 
lanterns to guide us down. On arriving at the 
village about 9 p.m. we simply collapsed on the 
floor of a native hut. Without any request on 
our part Daniel at once removed our boots and 
socks and bathed our blistered feet. He had 
been through the same strenuous day himself, 
and yet his frst thought was for our comfort. 
He had a wonderful way with children. I have 
seen him tenderly take a sick, screaming infant 
from its distracted mother and soothe it in a — 
few minutes. And then, so interested would the 
child become in what he was doing for it, the 
treatment would be over before it realized that it 
was being doctored. I shall never forget his 
care of our own child. Often my wife and I 
were ill with fever at the same time, and Daniel 
would do everything for him. Once we 
received an urgent message to go to the aid of a 
white man’s wife who was dangerously ill. We 
expected to be away from home for several days, 
so, of course, took our boy with us. Daniel was 


SOME INCIDENTS 103 


left in charge of the Mission Station. We 
found the patient in a dying condition. As there 
was no accommodation, and we could see much 
sad work ahead, we decided we must send Ian 
straight back to Daniel, sixteen miles across the 
sea. During the days of our absence Daniel 
prepared his bath, cooked his meals, let him 
kneel down at his black knees to say his prayers, 
put him to bed, and then told him Bible stories 
in the vernacular until he was safe in slumber 
land. The little laddie trusted Daniel perfectly— 
and perfect trust casteth out all fear. 

Once several of our little girls from six to eight 
years of age were sleeping in the spare room of 
the Mission House on account of their dormitory 
being over-crowded. In the middle of the night 
one of these little ones awakened the girl next to 
her, and, in a frightened whisper, said that a 
spirit had touched her hand. They consulted 
together in awed undertones as to what they had 
better do. In the darkness they tremblingly 
gathered together their hymn-books and placed 
a pile of them just outside each open door, 
confident that this would make a most effective 
barrage against all evil spirits. The little lassies 
then settled down again and slept quite peace- 
fully for the rest of the night. First thing next 
morning they sought out ‘ Dani’ (as they called 


104 THE SON OF A SAVAGE 


Daniel) and related their adventure to him. 
They knew that he would have a ready ear for 
their story, and would praise them for their 
loyalty to the Lotu—and they were not dis- 
appointed. Daniel was quick to agree that their 
faith in the Lotu Books had saved them from 
further visitation. This little incident is men- 
tioned because it beautifully illustrates Daniel’s 
sympathy with children and shows how precious 
a place he had in the hearts of our young folk. 


In the month of December, 1921, Daniel was 
married to Rini Vailoduri.. A great company 
gathered at the Head Station for the wedding. 
The decorated church, with its parasols of palms 
and festoons of feathery ferns and clinging 
creepers intermingled with beautiful flowers and 
orchids, constituted a triumph of native art. The 
social hour after the ceremony, ‘given up to 
feasting and speech-making, was the happiest 
function ever held on the Mission Station. Al- 
though many hundreds sat down to the ‘ Break- 
fast’ there was not a single dish to wash, as the 
usual fresh banana leaves were _ splendid 
substitutes for plates and dishes. To hear old 
erstwhile head-hunters tell of their happiness in 
being able to meet in this manner with love and 
goodwill in their hearts, thrilled us through and 


bor *q aovf 
“UUM SUIeI} You PACS eee ee prhee ls ae 
NIV ONY. HHINYC INTY ‘HHIM SIH CGNV ‘/ININVG 


“UOSJOUIIN'’ “D “MN 070Ud Be ated RRC AN ALE 








Photo E. A. Salisbury. 
CHRISTMAS SPORT AT. VELLA LAVELLA. 


face p. 105. 


SOME INCIDENTS 105 


through. Friends and relatives of both families 
compared the marriages of the past with that of 
the present, and rejoiced at the wonderful change 
wrought by the gospel. It was truly the Lord’s 
doing, and was marvellous in our eyes. 

Rini is a young woman of grace and charm. 
She had lived with us since a child of eight years 
of age. Being the chosen nurse girl of our little 
son she enjoyed the freedom of our home, and 
was practically a member of the family. Pos- 
sessed of the gift of song, a bright, happy 
disposition, a clever brain, and, above all, a true 
and loving heart, she was fitted in very way to 
become Daniel’s help-mate. 


(At fee eee 
Se Sia 
on ad Ae 

fi An 





CHAPTER X 


The Leader of his People 


DANIEL was at this time the appointed 
catechist at the Head Station, and a recognized 
Christian leader. Although specially endowed 
with personal qualities essential for leadership, 
the many duties thrust upon him from the 
commencement of his Christian life doubtless 
had the effect of speeding up the development 
of his character. . 

For many years his people had been encour- 
aged to look to him for guidance and counsel. 
It was my conviction that the best way to 
preserve their racial self-respect and to make 
Christianity indigenous was to create a leader 
from amongst themselves. So Daniel gradually 
became the central figure in the life of his people 
and my right-hand man. He was school teacher, 
drill master, preacher, First Aid specialist, and 
general overseer. But over and above his work 
on the Station he had innumerable ‘ outside’ 
calls; domestic disputes, land troubles, love 


affairs; all sorts of matters were brought to him. 
107 


108 THE SON OF A SAVAGE 


His duties were as varied as his ability to do 
them. . | 

Nothing pleased Daniel more than to be put 
in charge of a big job. The extension of our 
stone wharf gave him just the opportunity he 
liked. The work was distributed amongst three 
teams, each responsible for its own section. 
There was a team for building up each side and 
a team for filling in. The ‘filling-in’ party 
gathered stones from the shore; the others © 
collected their material from the reef—mostly 
under water—and floated their cargoes to the 
wharf on rafts which they built for the purpose. 
It was a heavy job, but it was tackled with en- 
thusiasm and carried on in a Spirit of happy 
rivalry. Daniel was the heart and soul of the 
whole undertaking, and kept his men enthused 
right through. At the finish each man was as 
proud of the result as Daniel himself. 

The organizing of the annual Christmas feast, 
when hundreds of people congregated at the 
Head Station, was another of Daniel’s many 
cheerfully-accepted responsibilities. Weeks of 
preparation were necessary; pigs, fish, turtles, 
yams, taros, bananas, nut puddings, and all sorts 
of other foods had to be collected in huge 
quantities. When the great day arrived, the 
canoe races, the high diving, the greasy pole, 


a 


THE LEADER OF HIS PEOPLE 109 


together with the shore sports—and even the 
great feast itseli—were always carried through 
with Daniel as Master of Ceremonies. 

After a great native gathering organized by 
the Government at Gizo, the District Officer, in 
a letter to the writer, paid tribute to Daniel in 
the following words:— Daniel Bula was of 
tremendous assistance to me. .. . I think he is 
quite the most refined and best-mannered native 
I have met in this Group. Please thank him 
again on my behalf for his assistance.’ 

Daniel was always seen to advantage as host. 
His guests were treated with utmost considera- 
tion. The best that he could supply was theirs 
to enjoy. The ‘labour’ boy who came for the 
treatment of his ugly wounds received the same 
courtesy as the most intimate of his personal 
friends. Once every three months the teachers 
were called together from far and near to discuss 
the affairs of the circuit. On these occasions 
Daniel regarded them as his special guests, and 
his home became the centre of social intercourse 
and good cheer; the sound of singing and of 
happy laughter that came to us through the 
evening air was good to hear. Daniel’s gracious 
manner calls to mind the tribute of Professor 
Waterman to Ishi, the Red Indian, in Arthur 
Mee's Wonderful Day. The Professor says, ‘ He 


110 THE SON OF A SAVAGE 


convinced me that there is such a thing as a 
gentle-manliness which lies outside of all train- 
ing and is an expression purely of an inward 
spirit. It has nothing to do with artificially 
acquired tricks of behaviour.... He had an 
innate regard for the other fellow’s existence, and 
an inborn considerateness that surpassed in fine- 
ness most of the civilized breeding with which I 
am familiar.’ 


But the quality which pre-eminently fitted 
Daniel for leadership was his deep spirituality. 
There flowed from him a continuous stream of 
goodwill, justice, truth, courage, confidence. All 
who came into contact with him were very con- 
scious of this. The peace and calm of his person- 
ality made it clear that he was in tune with the © 
Infinite, and that life was to him a spiritual 
existence. He knew his spirit to be one 
with the Great Father of all spirits. He 
often expressed his experience in this 
way: ‘What a tree is to the leaf, the Great 
Father is to me; I have everything in my 
Father. And so, because Daniel realized his 
oneness with the Divine, he was able to be a 
recipient of Divine power and influence. So com- 
pletely had he put himself in harmony with 
Spiritual forces that he became increasingly 


THE LEADER OF HIS PEOPLE 111 


sensitive to spiritual impulses. Nothing seemed 
to go wrong with him. The cares and worries 
and petty non-essentials that distressed others 
never troubled him. He breathed a pure spiritual 
atmosphere and dwelt in the tranquillity of God’s 
Presence. He learnt to recognize the Voice of 
God and to obey it. This brought him into 
touch with infinite Wisdom, helped him to rise 
above fear and selfishness and hate, and made 
him receptive to every ennobling thought. He 
believed in a very beautiful way that his whole 
life was controlled and directed by God. Prayer 
was the biggest thing in his life. It was his 
“soul’s sincere desire’; his ‘ vital breath’; his 
‘native air.’ Very often have I found him in the 
privacy of his own room on his knees. His 
prayer-life was certainly the secret of his spiritual 
power. Because of his perfect trust God was 
able to build up his character in beauty and 
strength, and to give him to enjoy the heights 
of Christian experience. 

Somehow Daniel seemed to see with clear 
vision right into the life of his people. He early 
realized that the spark of divinity (which he had 
been taught to believe was in every man) was, 
in the case of his own folk, completely smothered 
over with superstition. He quickly com- 
prehended, too, that fear was a fixed habit with 


112 THE SON OF A SAVAGE 


them, and that their destructive thinking had 
attracted to themselves the very things they 
feared. The only way to account for this won- 
derful insight is to admit that the great God of 
Heaven, who seeks to express Himself in 
individual lives, set His seal upon him, taber- 
nacled with him, walked with him, put His law 
in his heart and upon his mind. And did so not 
only in order that he might have life, and have 
it more abundantly, but that he might accomplish 
for his own people a specific work. Daniel semed 
to know intuitively that God’s hand was upon 
him. This enabled him to think constructively, 
to feel compassion, to appreciate something of 
that fundamental Christian principle—Service. 
Above all it gave to him the highest type of 
courage—the courage of strong moral conviction. - 
In the early days this courage rendered him proof 
against ridicule, opposition, reproach. It came 
from the depths of his nature. It was not a 
condition of nerve, but a quality of character. 
It was of the kind that marks the man. It enabled 
him to continue doing what he believed to be 
right, even when the right happened to be un- 
popular. It enabled him fearlessly to obey God 
and conscience, no matter what such obedience 
might cost. It was the courage of his namesake 
of Holy Writ, who refused to give up praying 





Photo E. A. Salisbury. 
DANIEL ADDRESSING MISSIONARY GATHERING. 





Photo. E. A. Salisbury. 
DRILL, AT VELLA LAVELLA. 


TICBE pe elias 





Photo E. A. Salisbury. 


THE HOUR OF WORSHIP 





Photo E. A. Salisbury. 
SUNDAY AT VELLA LAVELLA. 


~ faceape rx 


THE LEADER OF HIS PEOPLE 113 


though he knew that the sequel to his prayers 
would be the lion’s den. It was the courage of 
the three young Hebrews, who braved the 
furnace of flame rather than worship the image 
set up by a haughty king. When Daniel believed 
a course of action to be true and right, he held 
to it firmly and heroically; he was, in fact, willing 
to suffer, fight, and even die for it. Again, and 
again, and again, upheld by the Spirit of his 
God, he proved himself the true leader of his 
people. 





CHAPTER XI 


His Passing 


‘I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, 
I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me 
the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous 
Judge, shall give to me that day: and not to me only, but 
also to all them that have loved His appearing.’ —St. Paut. 
AT the Head Station, in the early hours of 
September 30, 1922, after an illness of only two 
days, God called Daniel to higher service. Con- 
cerning his passing the Rev. A. A. Bensley, who 
is now carrying on the work at Vella Lavella, 
wrote: | 
‘Since about midnight my mind has been 
filled with the sense of a great personal bereave- 
ment. I am realizing how greatly I learned to 
love Daniel Bula. At every turn I look for him, 
but he is not there. He was my stay, I leaned 
upon him, and through him I was getting to 
know his people, their language, and customs. 
He was always so keen that I should learn, and 
he was ever so courteous in the help he gave. 
Dan was white in everything but his skin—and 
the best quality of white. And I have known 
him but a few months. Those who have known 


him and worked with him for years will be deso- 
115 


116 THE SON OF A SAVAGE 


lated by his passing. The beautiful spirit he 
displayed, his utter devotion to Jesus Christ, his 
sense of right and justice, his amazing chivalry 
and that wonderful face of his, so often lit by the 
smile that played on it. His life is the most 
powerful apologetic I know. Though he was but 
twenty-eight when he died, he saw savage 
killings, and he predeceased many who engaged 
in head-hunts and all the revolting superstitions 
of heathenism. Yet he was rather like the rare 
product of generations of Christian experience. 
He revealed all the little delicacies of a refined 
gentleman. Always his manners were irreproach- 
able. The love of Christ was a wonder to him, 
and it was that love that transformed a young 
heathen into a very perfect knight. He had 
gathered round him a number of boys whom he | 
had collected from various places—orphans, not- 
wanteds, cast-offs, and he was training them for 
a shining life. 

‘Since his death I have learned something of 
the beauty of his home life, which he conducted 
in a way that would shame many who ought to 
be his teachers. No wonder his young wife, Rini, 
is heartbroken. Never will I forget the sad, sad 
hour of his passing, and the subsequent harrow- 
ing expressions of the grief of his people. There 
is a pathos in it that wrings the heart. As he 


HIS PASSING 117 


was fighting for his breath, Rini was crying 
piteously, “ Daniel Bula! Daniel Bula! You 
can’t go; you have not finished your letter to 
Nikolo; I will have to send it as it is. Minister, 
who will stand with you on Sundays now and 
interpret for you? Minister, who will look after 
your house now? Who will look after the boys 
when you go away?” As she looked round at 
the little boys squatting about the room, she 
said, “ Who now will be your father? Please 
God, I will.” Ah, it was sad, sad. 

‘He had been feeling out of sorts for a few 
days but went about his work. Once or twice 
he complained to Rini about a pain in his side. 
On Wednesday night, September 27, he watched 
me doing some photography, and was much in- 
terested in the results because I had photo- 
graphed him among his little boys. Then he 
went in and commenced to write a letter. This 
kept him up for some time. He had a touch of 
ague when he went to bed. He was intensely 
devoted to the work of the place, and sometime, 
in the very early morning, he went down to the 
beach to see if the boys were watching the fire 
in the copra drier. At five in the morning he was 
delirious, and, as soon as she knew, the Sister 
took charge and began measures for reducing his 
burning fever. It was not until the following 


118 THE SON OF A SAVAGE 


morning that a free perspiration was evident and 
his temperature was reduced. Then he was 
conscious, and smiled in response to our remarks. 
His temperature would not stay reduced, how- 
ever, but was up and down with rapid changes 
during the whole of that day. I had to quieten 
him with a little morphia, he was so agitated and 
in such pain. At midnight we knew the end was 
near, and shortly after one in the morning, he 
passed away. 7 

‘The possibility of his death did not occur to 
us, for it seemed unthinkable. We were all 
stunned and bewildered and could not realize 
what had happened. On Sunday we held our 
usual services. In the morning I made some 
broken references to his passing. It was very 
difficult for me to speak, and I kept looking for. _ 
Dan, who always stood near me to interpret. 
The people sat as though stricken, as indeed they 
were. In the afternoon Sister spoke of his won- 
derful record of faithful labour; his shining 
example of love and service. One of the boys 
said he was their great chief, and now what could 
they do? He was intimate with every family. 
He was counsellor and adviser in all land matters. 
All, even old men, were content to follow him for 
there was wisdom in his decisions. Our Church 
has suffered a great loss, and in the name of the 


HIS PASSING 119 


Church I have spoken such words to Rini as I 
could. Will you all pray that, though he is dead, 
there will be no loosening of the bonds that bind 
the people together, but that young men from 
his own kith will arise to carry on his work.’ 

Many beautiful letters were received from the 
Solomons giving particulars of Daniel’s last days 
and telling of his splendid influence. Miss 
Jennings, the Missionary Sister of Vella Lavella, 
wrote as follows to the Women’s Auxiliary of 
Foreign Missions: 

‘Daniel was both our right and left hand in 
our work here. Even though I try to explain I 
will never be able to make you home people 
realize what a power for good he was over his 
Own countrymen. Witho.it him we feel our main 
support has gone. Perhaps God knew that we 
trusted too much to Dan and his power, and 
not enough to Himself, and so we have to be 
taught this lesson to our cost. It did not matter 
what needed doing, inside or outside, it was just, 
“ Call Dan.” He was always ready. He fixed up 
the squabbles and straightened out the difficulties 
of heathen and Lotu people alike, and yet always 
giving them to understand that he was a poor 
substitute and that only God could make them 
strong. Dan loved them all. It was heart- 
breaking to see their grief as they gazed at his 


120 THE SON OF A SAVAGE 


body and called upon him as their chief to speak 
his will to them. He was laid within sound of 
the sea he loved so much, and our Bilua people 
are putting a cement fence and a small stone over 
his grave as their last effort to show their love 
for one who lived to please God in all his ways.’ 

The letter from Rini, Daniel’s young widow, 
is particularly pathetic. To the author and his 
wife she wrote: 

‘My father and mother, I write to you because | 
I know you will understand the state of my heart. 
To-day my heart is broken, for the right hand 
of me has gone. Dani is no longer with me. He 
is now with God, and I alone am here. Oh, I 
am so lonely. Every day and every night I long 
to see his face and hear his voice and I cannot. 
O father and mother, my heart is as heavy as a 
stone and my thought will not come correctly. 
You know that our life together was nothing 
but happy. We two loved each other and helped 
each other all the time. But to-day Dani is not 
here. I listen for the sound of his voice and long 
for a look at his face, but all in vain. My Dani 
was ill for two days only and then God took him 
from me. I cannot understand why. I am 
amazed. But I know he has gone to be with God, 
because his face at the time of his going was lit 
with a wondrous light.’ 


HIS PASSING 121 


When the news of Daniel’s passing reached 
New Zealand the following tribute to his worth 
was made in the personal columns of The Open 
Door by the Editor: 

‘Daniel Bula was a living evidence of the 
power of Christ to change the heart of a savage, 
and out of the most unlikely material to make a 
man of the Christ-spirit. He was a man of great 
beauty of character, faithful in the discharge of 
duty, absolutely dependable, loyal to the Mission 
and the missionaries. During his visit to New 
Zealand a few years ago he made troops of 
friends by his gentle-manliness, his winsomeness 
of character, and his evident sincerity. His death 
is a severe loss to the Mission. The sympathy 
of the Church in New Zealand goes out to the 
infant Church in the Solomons in its hour of 
Sorrow.’ 

The children’s missionary magazine, The Lotu, 
published at the same time this editorial 
article: ; 


‘THE PEOPLE ARE CRYING’ 
Because they will see no more in this world the 
face of dear Daniel Bula. 

* Daniel Bula was the first convert to the faith 
of Jesus Christ on the island of Vella Lavella 
in the Solomons Group. Sixteen years ago the 


122 THE SON OF A SAVAGE 


Rev. R. C. Nicholson as a young missionary 
landed on the beach, built a hut, and began his 
work for Christ on that heathen island. The 
people were all pagans, their lives filled with 
ignorance, fear, and cruelty. Oh, it must have 
been hard work, for no one believed the Message 
of Good News for four long years. Then one 
of the native lads gave his heart to Jesus and 
began to live the Christian life. It was Daniel 
Bula. His old companions tried to make him go | 
back to the old ways again; but Daniel had 
found the true Master, and he remained loyal. 
The missionary’s heart was glad and filled with 
hope, as when a farmer sees a green blade appear 
on the surface of the earth and begins to think 
of golden harvests by-and-bye. Daniel grew 
strong in the Christian faith and became the 
missionary’s helper. He learned to preach and 
to teach and to win his countrymen to the know- 
ledge of Jesus. The time came when Mr. 
Nicholson took ill and had to return to his 
home in Australia. Whatever would happen to 
the Mission? Who would conduct the services? 
Who would comfort and guide the people? Who 
would teach in the school? After nine months’ 
absence the missionary returned, to find that the 
church and the school were in good going order. 
There had not been a Sunday without a service 


HIS PASSING 123 


and not one scholar had lapsed from the school. 
Daniel had done it all. 

‘Daniel Bula was the first Solomon Islander 
from our Mission Field to visit us here in New 
Zealand. It was five years ago. Mr. Nicholson, 
with his wife and their little boy, Ian, came to 
tell us the wonderful story of eleven years’ work 
in Vella Lavella, and the change that had come 
into the people’s lives since they learned to love 
and follow Jesus. Mr. Nicholson brought 
Daniel with him. Daniel spoke in missionary 
meetings in every part of New Zealand, and his 
words moved our hearts deeply. Daniel came 
into our homes and sat at our tables, ane. we 
found him to be a truly Christian gentleman. He 
made many friends and his photo is in many 
homes, where his memory will be always fondly 
cherished. He returned to the Solomon Islands, 
and a great meeting was held, when the people 
of Vella Lavella gathered to hear Daniel tell the 
story of his visit to New Zealand. 

“Now a letter comes to tell us that the people 
of Vella Lavella are crying. What has happened? 
Dear Daniel Bula took ill with fever on Sep- 
tember 27, and after less than three days’ illness 
he died. So Mr. Bensley, who is the missionary 
there now, took up his pen at half-past two 
o'clock on the morning of September 30 to write 


124 THE SON OF A SAVAGE 


the news:—‘ Daniel has just died. The people 
are crying. Their wailing is ushering in the 
dawn. Well might they cry. They have never 
lost such a friend. For fifteen years Dan was 
Mr. Nicholson’s right hand. I think, without 
doubt, he was the most influential man on Vella 
Lavella, and his influence was all for the Lotu 
of Jesus Christ. Since I have been here he has 
been my hands and my eyes. Tell the people, 
particularly the Sunday-school children, of Daniel 
Bula, for he, their friend, has gone.” 

‘ All is well with Daniel. His spirit lives in the 
Presence of Jesus. His work on earth is done, 
but there is higher service to render in heaven. 
Daniel has gone home. He is one more in the 
long train of apostles, prophets, saints and 
martyrs. He has joined the multitude which no 
man can number, welcomed with people of every 
colour and every clime, who sing before the 
Throne of God.’ 

Amid the beautiful palms and bright coloured 
crotons of his native land, and with the murmur. 
of the waves on the coral strand chanting a tire- 
less lullaby, Daniel Bula was laid to rest. His 
grave was made in the quietest and shadiest 
spot on the Mission Station; but his ransomed 
soul went to be with Christ, which is far better. 

In closing the story of this remarkable life the 


HIS PASSING 125 


writer asks his readers to remember that, al- 
though Daniel Bula was only twenty-eight years 
of age at the time of his passing over, he lived 
to see the land of his birth become Christian in 
character and in social custom from one end to 
the other. He saw the banishment of barbarism, 
head-hunting, widow-strangling, and_ child- 
murder. He saw his people change from brutal 
Savages into genuine Christians. He saw them 
delivered from the bondage of corruption into 
the glorious liberty of the children of God. He 
saw love-feasts take the place of tribal fights; he 
saw the sons of notorious hunters of human prey 
become acceptable preachers of the Gospel of 
Jesus Christ; he saw the canoes that took the 
fathers to their head-hunting raids take the sons 
to their preaching appointments. He himself 
was of the number, and he himself was able to 
preach to his own people from the text, ‘ For ye 
Shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: 
the mountains and the hills shall break forth 
before you into singing, and all the trees of the 
field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn 
Shall come up the fir-tree, and instead of the briar 
Shall come up the myrtle-tree: and it shall be to 
the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign that 
Shall not be cut off. 

Daniel’s life was a wonderful testimony to his 


126 THE SON OF A SAVAGE 


devotion to Christ. To him the welfare of the 
work of God was a matter of the most absorbing 
passion. Amid the manifold activities of a big 
Mission Station he never spared himself. At the 
time of his death his moral authority and in- 
fluence on Vella Lavella were unchallenged. His 
was an exceptional nature—gentle and intensely 
sensitive, and yet, withal, possessing the power 
of personal leadership to a marked degree. When 
the occasion arose he was stronger in will and 
more self-reliant in carrying out a plan of action 
than any other native I have ever met. He had 
a strange combination of qualities. Trustful yet 
self-reliant; courageous yet humble; tender yet 
forceful. Because of his winsome personality and 
great tender sympathetic heart he was the best 
loved man on Vella Lavella. The way in which 
both heathen and Christian people came from 
north and south and from east and west to pay 
their last tribute was striking evidence of the 
regard in which he was held by all. 

His little son carries his name. May he follow 
in his father’s footsteps! ,The memory of Daniel 
will ever be one of the Church’s most valuable 
possessions. Not until the kingdoms of this 
world become the kingdoms of God and of His 
Christ shall we fully know how much he helped 
forward the Christianization of his people. Those 


HIS PASSING 127 


who knew Daniel Bula best, know that a great 
soul has gone from amongst us, and that of him 
it can be truly said, ‘He being dead, yet 
speaketh.’ 


RUSH & WARWICK, PRINTERS, BEDFORD. 





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